EU Funds and the growth of social economy entities (SEES) in Poland

The statement that "Social Economy" is the master key that opens the EU "Fund Box" constitutes the point of departure for the assessment of the impact of the EU funds on the expansion SEEs in Poland. It is quite often that Social Economy is treated almost like very well-known fairy tales entreat: "Open Sesame". The term Social Economy is very capacious. The use of this term allows to peruse a broad spectrum of projects under the EU funding. The leading program under which the EU Funds are dispersed under the umbrella of Social Economy is the "Human Capital Project". Considerable amount of funds was made available within the framework of this Project was made available to so institutions working in sup-port of the Social Economy with the aim to promote and enhance knowledge and skills needed to engage in and carry out activities as SEE. An excess of 712 million PLN was earmarked for the realization of these goals. The results of this to date are unsatisfactory. Despite that, more than 100 thousand persons interested in Social Economy went through training only 85 SEEs were created in the whole of Poland. “Self-sustainability” or in other words, the ability to sustain own economic activities independent of the EU Funds, is key to the success of SEEs. As a result of the participation in the EU funded projects SEEs improved their financial capacity, but at the same time became grew dependent on the assistance of public financ-ing. Tis is exemplified by the fact that income derived from their own activities constitutes only 45,6 percent of the entire income as compared to 72,8 percent of income derived from own economic activities by entities that do not participate in the EU funded projects. Availability of funds under the “Human Capital” project results in the fact that income derived from the sale of goods and services account for only 43.1 percent of the total income while for the non-participants that income accounts for 58,9 percent. What’s also interesting the SEEs that receive financial support are not interested in undertaking business challenges and risks such a applying for bank loans. Figures show that credit constitutes only 0,6 percent of their total income while, for the non-participants, it accounts for 1,7 percent of their total incom