From 2023 the EU support will be much smaller than it is now. For the economic growth achieved thanks to the EU funds to be an impulse for further development, repayable instruments, i.e. loans, credits and guarantees should be used on a larger scale, BGK experts argue. They can be used repeatedly and support a larger number of companies. In turn, local governments should already today seek partners who will support the maintenance of infrastructure built with EU money.
- We should think about the future today and allocate more resources to repayable instruments, such as loans, guarantees, capital entries, so that we can use them many times. Grants or subsidies are spent once and support only one undertaking. Return instruments, on the other hand, make it possible to support entrepreneurs many times and over a longer period of time," says Patrycja Wolińska-Bartkiewicz, managing director of the EU funds division at Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego, in an interview with Newseria Biznes.
In the perspective for 2014-2020, Poland has 82.5 billion euros to spend, which may be spent until 2022. Entrepreneurs can obtain financial support for investments under national and regional programmes. This is probably the last such large injection of money from the European Union. Another strategy of using the support will enable further development of companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, which would not have a chance to develop without EU funds.
- European funds are of great importance to entrepreneurs, especially those in the initial phase of development, who have a great idea and lack the knowledge where to obtain funds to implement them on the market and develop their businesses. Especially for the micro, small and medium enterprises sector, European funds are a welcome financial injection - indicates Wolińska-Bartkiewicz.
BGK also has such instruments in its offer. One of them is de minimis guarantees, thanks to which companies from the SME sector gain greater access to working or investment loans. The Bank also grants loans to finance export contracts under the government's Export Finance Support Programme.
- Already today it is worth to think about financial instruments, means which can be used many times and which are supposed to support a larger number of entrepreneurs. I think that these courageous decisions should be made in such a way as to create capital to finance development tasks in the future," the BGK expert argues.
Local governments should also think about the situation after 2023. The coming years are a period of increased investments. The voivodeship self-governments will manage about 40% of the funds from the cohesion policy, i.e. about EUR 31.28 billion. Subsidies allocated to the cohesion policy after the end of the 2014-2020 perspective will be significantly lower, so the local governments should find another way to obtain funds for conducting development policy and meeting their needs.
- The local governments should be aware today that the infrastructure we have or are building today will have to be maintained later. It is necessary to think about gaining as many private and market partners and financial institutions as possible, which will participate in financing this infrastructure and which will give it sense in the future. These will be places that will create and support natural development potentials - says Patrycja Wolińska-Bartkiewicz.
