Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy has selected the victorous towns, which will be supported under the EEA and Norway Grants Local Development Programme. The list covers 29 small and medium-sized towns from all over Poland. In the Silesian voivodeship the grants will go to 5 towns: Żywiec, Rydułtowy, Cieszyn, Zabrze, Zawiercie. The Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and the Secretary of State in theMinistry of Development Funds and Regional Policy Waldemar Buda, have presented the results of the call for proposals in Zabrze.
The EEA and Norway Grants, the EU funds, as well as the national funds, which we cannot forget, constitute a set of measures to support the sustainable development in all towns and to create new development perspectives. Development of the local Poland, bringing out the beauty and development potential, are at the top of the priority list of the Polish government – said Mateusz Morawiecki.
The Local Development Programme is aimed to strengthen socio-economic cohesion through improving the quality of the environment, entrepreneurship, efficiency of public administration and the living standard of all inhabitants of small and medium-sized towns.
There is no one-size-fits-all template and a wise development policy takes this into account. We have created such a policy. We give small homelands an impulse to act. One of such impulses is just the Local Development Programme. In total, EUR 17.5 million will be allocated to Silesia for the development of small homelands from the Local Development Programme – said the deputy minister Waldemar Buda.
Support under the programme can be used for activities improving the quality of life of the inhabitants of small and medium-sized towns, inter alia, through projects to improve air quality (switching to renewable energy sources or low-emission public transport), reducing unemployment and economic migration to large cities, supporting entrepreneurship and strengthening the local labor market. It is also an opportunity to implement projects that are in line with the housing policy. The programme also places emphasis on strengthening and improving the functioning of local government administration.
Due to the difficult economic situation caused by the pandemic, the Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy extended the ranking list. There were 29 towns on the list that received at least 60 percent of the points in the substantive assessment in terms of both the Local Development Plan and the Institutional Development Plan evaluation.
Money for the development of Polish towns comes from a special pool of funds that Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein have granted to several Central and Southern European countries and the Baltic States. In return, these three countries have access to the European Union's internal market, even though they are not EU members. Poland will benefit from these funds for the third time. We have EUR 809 million at our disposal for the years 2014-2021 (the implementation periods of the EEA and Norway Grants and the EU funds do not coincide). The contract for the implementation of the Local Development Program is for the sum – 117.6 million, of which 15 percent of this amount, i.e. EUR 17.6 million, is the national contribution.
On June 30, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki together with Deputy Minister Waldemar Buda inaugurated the announcement of the winners of the competition in the Local Development Programme financed by the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism. That day we got to know the towns that will receive funding in the Śląskie and Łódzkie voivodships. Later this week, we will meet the winners from the Podkarpackie (July 1) and Wielkoplskie (July 2) provinces. In turn, next week we plan to congratulate the victorous towns of the Świętokrzyskie (6 July) and Podlaskie (8 July) provinces. The full list of co-financed towns will be published on July 9 on the website www.eog.gov.pl in the section dedicated to the Local Development Programme.