The study, entitled Poland in the European Union: Benefits, was commissioned by the Friendly State Foundation (FPK), the wnp.pl website reported.
In the period between joining the EU on May 1, 2004, and April 31, 2023, Poland benefited from EUR 237.8 billion in transfers from the bloc, according to the finance ministry in Warsaw, FPK’s experts wrote.
In the same period, the Polish government paid a total of EUR 79.1 billion into the EU budget, according to the FPK report.
This means that for every euro contributed to the EU’s coffers, Poland received three euros to help finance the country’s development, the FPK’s experts said.
The biggest part of EU funding, 65.1%, has been allocated for projects to support national cohesion, while 31.4% has gone to Poland’s farmers and projects to support rural areas, the FPK study found.
In addition to direct funding from Brussels, Poland has benefited from the free movement of workers, goods and capital that comes with membership of the EU, the experts stressed.
Since joining the EU, “Poland has reduced the development gap, boosted exports and attracted foreign investments” on a scale that is unprecedented in Europe, according to the FPK report, wnp.pl noted.
Rise in GDP, foreign investment, exports
Between May 1, 2004 and April 30, 2023, Poland’s GDP has increased from 40% of western levels to 76%, according to the authors of the FPK study.
Meanwhile, foreign direct investment (FDI) in Poland rose from EUR 46 billion in 2003 to EUR 301 billion in 2022, the report also found.
Moreover, Polish exports increased 7.3 times in the same period, from EUR 59 billion to EUR 432 billion, the FPK said.
According to economists, Poland’s membership of the EU has added at least one percentage point to the country’s annual GDP growth rate, with some experts estimating that the effect totals 1.9-2.6 percentage points, according to the report.
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Source: wnp.pl, The Friendly State Foundation FPK, european-union.europa.eu