'The 20th anniversary of Poland's membership of the European Union is a success story for Polish women and men. No other society or country in our region has managed to take advantage of its presence in the European Union in such a way as Poles have managed to do,

Minister for Funds and Regional Policy Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz said at a press conference to mark 20 years of Poland's presence in the European Union.

To that meeting, the Minister invited students of International Relations and European Studies, who were born at the time of Poland's accession to the EU and, as Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz said, are "peers" of our EU membership.

The Minister emphasised that the entrepreneurial spirit, hard work, action, activism and local patriotism of its citizens are behind Poland's success in the EU.

'We want to pay tribute to Polish men and women for this huge success in difficult times. You Poles have done it. You succeeded because you worked very hard for it,'

the Minister said.

Minister Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz reported that the 'take-home' benefit after deduction of receipts from the EU for the implementation of cohesion policy, the NRP and the Common Agricultural Policy, as well as the Polish membership contribution to the EU budget, our country received EUR 175 billion over the 20 years of its presence in the Union.

The net balance amounts to EUR 175 billion for Poland. 'This is a piece of information for all those who say we subsidise the EU. It is exactly the opposite,'

said the Minister.

Minister Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz emphasised that Polish exports have increased sixfold in 20 years and exceed Poland's imports from the EU by nearly EUR 80 billion. 'During this time, our agricultural exports have increased tenfold. Polish municipalities have completed 300,000 projects, an average of 120 projects per municipality.

This is an impressive effort, an impressive grassroots activity of local government officials, local activists and patriots,'

the minister said. 

The Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy will coordinate a public awareness campaign to mark Poland's 20th anniversary in the EU. Its slogan is Good To Be Together. 20 years of Poland in the European Union and the campaign will cover the whole of Poland.

'We will want to talk about the effect of Poland's membership of the European Union. The success of these 20 years is measured by an improved quality of life in Poland, the stories of specific people, specific Polish companies and their successes,'

emphasised Deputy Minister of Development Funds and Regional Policy Jan Szyszko.

The Deputy Minister said that more than a thousand events were planned across the country. Details of the events can be found here.

Poland, the biggest beneficiary of EU funds, with doubled GDP and low unemployment

Transfers from the EU budget to Poland have amounted to almost EUR 250 billion since 2004. Of this, approximately EUR 165.3 billion was transferred to projects under the cohesion policy funds and approximately EUR 78 billion to the Common Agricultural Policy.

Poland's payments to the EU amounted to around EUR 86 billion in the same period. This means that the balance of transfers between Poland and the EU was positive between 2004 and 2024, amounting to more than EUR 163 billion. Therefore, after taking into account our country's payments to the EU budget, Poland is the largest beneficiary of EU funds.

In addition, Poland received the first transfers under the National Recovery Plan in 2023 and 2024. As of 15 April this year, Poland received approximately EUR 3.2 billion in grant support and approximately EUR 8.1 billion from the loan part of the programme. Taking these measures into account, the positive balance of Poland's EU membership increased to approximately EUR 175 billion.

Poland's participation in the Single European Market (SEM) was a key factor in our country's GDP growth. The Polish economy has doubled since joining the EU, with a cumulative GDP growth of 99 per cent, and half of the growth was thanks to EU membership. Our country achieved the third-highest cumulative GDP growth (after Ireland and Malta) among EU Member States.

Poland's GDP in per capita terms (PPS) increased from 50 per cent of the EU average in 2004 to 80 per cent in 2023, i.e. from EUR 10,910 in 2004 to EUR 30,102 in 2023.

The opening of borders for the movement of goods, services and people, as well as rapid economic growth have allowed unemployment in Poland to fall sharply from 19 per cent (highest in the EU) to 3 per cent. The fall in unemployment was followed by an increase in Poles' wages by almost 140 per cent on average.

Participation in the common EU market has enabled Polish producers to expand into markets all over the world –exports from Poland have increased sixfold from EUR 60 billion to EUR 350 billion, including from EUR 45 billion to EUR 262 billion worth of exports to EU countries between 2004 and 2023. The largest items in which Poland has often become a leading supplier in the Union are car parts, batteries, television sets, furniture and cosmetics. 

20 years in the EU and the Polish economy

Between Poland's accession to the EU until the end of 2023, the value of EU funding for cohesion policy projects amounted to around EUR 164.6 billion (just over PLN 700 billion). As a result, almost 300,000 projects could be implemented.

The funds mainly supported transport projects (approximately PLN 243 billion), entrepreneurship and innovation (approximately PLN 126 billion), human capital (PLN 105 billion), environmental protection (PLN 76.7 billion) and energy (PLN 36.3 billion).

In the case of support for transport development, road construction received the most funding (around 60 per cent of EU support allocated to transport in Poland).

• 19,582 km – the length of roads built or upgraded (approximately 4.6 per cent of the public road network)
• 4,001.5 km – motorways and major roads constructed or upgraded
• 15,581 km – national, provincial, district and municipal roads built or upgraded

Rail transport and collective transport

• 6,349 km – the length of constructed or upgraded railway lines (approximately 32.7 per cent of the railway lines in operation)
• 1,010 – the number of passenger rolling stock units purchased (approx. 23.6 per cent of passenger carriers' rolling stock)
• 5,942 – the number of public transport passenger rolling stock purchased or modernised (approx. 38% of urban/communal passenger transport fleet)

Transmission networks

• 2,153 km – the length of district heating network constructed or modernised
• 1,182 km – the length of power transmission networks constructed or upgraded
• 2,077 km – the length of gas transmission pipelines built

R&D and entrepreneurship

• PLN 53.8 billion – the value of R&D projects
• nearly 77,000 – the number of supported projects in enterprises
• PLN 197.7 billion – the value of projects designed to support businesses

Digitisation

• 5.3 million – the number of households covered by the broadband network (slightly over 1/3 of all households in Poland)
• approx. 20,000 – the number of schools that gained access to superfast and secure Internet (approximately 90% of all schools)
• approx. 200 – the number of launched e-services of national and regional importance

Human capital

• approx. 4 million – the number of the unemployed covered by professional insertion programmes
• approx. 500,000 – the number of start-ups, established mostly by the unemployed
• more than 1.5 million – the number of students supported in improving key competences and universal skills
• approx. 1.3 million – the number of persons with disabilities supported (approx. 56 per cent of all persons with disabilities)