After the summit of the European Council in July 2020, at which a long-term budget for Poland was agreed upon amounting to EUR 170 billion, the government proceeded to public consultations and works on an investment plan of these funds.

Similarly to 2014-2020, also in the newly beginning perspective 2021-2027 approximately 60% of the cohesion policy funds is to go to programs carried out at national level. Regional programs, managed by voivodeship marshals, will receive the other 40% and will decided on where the funds should be allocated.

National programs will be thematically similar to the ones currently carried out. This means that the cohesion policy funds will be invested in the infrastructure development, environmental protection and the increase of human capital.

The distribution of funds into specific national programs has been announced and its most important sectors are the following: 

• Infrastructure and Environment - EUR 25,1 billion (including the largest infrastructure investments, roads, railways, public transport, environmental protection); 

• Smart Growth - EUR 8 billion (including innovations, the cooperation of science and business);

• Knowledge, Education, Development - EUR 4,3 billion (including science, education, nurseries, social matters);

• Digital Poland - EUR 2 billion (including digitalization, broadband networks).

 The names of the programs have not been determined yet; however, it is likely that they have a similar thematic scope to the ones that we know from the 2014-2020 perspective, therefore there were used the current programs' names in the list above.

When do we release the funds for the new budget 2021-2027?

Within the consultations of the Partnership Agreement, there will be 16 regional meetings up to 16 February. The whole consultation process is to end up to 22 February. After this date, there will be prepared the final version of the Agreement which will be submitted to the Partnership Agreement Committee, then to the government for acceptance. The accepted document is to be submitted to the European Commission for formal consultations and further acceptance.

We presume that the funds from the new EU budget may be available for financing the Polish economy later this year.