Acceso usuarios
Warszawa, Polonia
The purpose of this article is to contribute to the debate on the Europeanization ofnew member states by discussing the impact of European Union (EU) regional policyon Polish regions. Analysis of the institutional setting connected to the regionalpolicy proves that the general lack of social trust in Poland determines the unjustifiedcomplexity of procedures affecting the absorption of structural funds. In thisinvestigation we adopt the social capital perspective to explain regional variation in thecapacity to implement EU regional policy. The conclusions contradict the mainstreamthesis that it is bridging social capital that correlates positively with regional economicdevelopment and administrative capacities. On the contrary, among the case studyregions the one with higher bonding social capital proved more efficient in theabsorption of EU funds. The following question remains — does the pace of absorptioncorrespond to allocation decisions that would support the development of a region in along-term perspective
