State Action in an Enlarged Europe: Poland and the Structural Funds 2007-2013

This study sets to investigate the reasons behind state action in an enlarged Europe through its regional policy and the structural funds for the budget period 2007-2013 by the example of Poland. The question posed is: why is there a centralization trend on a national level in Poland when EU decentralizes its regional policy? The analysis suggests that the answer can be found by adopting a state-centered realist approach complemented with a constructivist perspective. The Polish state is an autonomous actor in need of resources to survive and maintain political power. Resources could either be obtained from its own country by, for example, taxes or from outside means by, for example, EU funding. Therefore, when the EU gives the member state more control over the structural funds it results in a centralization process on a national level. This behavior is accentuated by the Polish inherent value system that favors centralization as explained by a constructivist approach