Funds for sustainable development

FUNDS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

ekoprojekty.pl

The vast amount of EU funds that is available for Poland now, as a member state, and in the past, as an accession country, as well as the financial support offered by the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development pose numerous challenges before our country. These funds may be just spent or they may be spent wisely. It seems that the way in which these funds are used should be coherent with the vision of Poland for next several decades. Will Poland be a country friendly to its citizens, a country that ensures a good quality life in good quality environment? Is the economic development that leads to this future Poland sustainable? All will it be so?

The aim of the activities initiated by the Polish Green Network under the Funds for Sustainable Development Programme is to ensure such a use of public funds that is beneficial for environment and people. We monitor how economic development is financed at the level of the voivodships and the country, trying to ensure that sustainable development is something more than just an empty slogan. We call for transparency in decision-making processes, including project selection and use of funds for particular investments.
We carry out our activities for a more effective and environmentally friendly use of the funds provided by the EU and the international financial institutions (EIB, EBRD) within CEE Bankwatch Network, of which we are a member. CEE Bankwatch Network unites NGOs from 12 countries: Poland, the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Georgia, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Macedonia. Its mission is to prevent the environmentally and socially harmful impacts of international development finance, and to promote alternative solutions and public participation. Main areas of its activities, carried out mainly by national coordinators, include: energy and climate, transport, waste management.

We monitor EU Funds allocated under regional and national operational programmes. We analyse the amounts that are provided for respective project types, changes at the indicative lists of major projects (over 50 million EUR) and implementation of mechanisms related to reduction of global warming or the global crisis. We monitor preparation of projects in waste management, transport and water management infrastructure that are co-financed from the EU funds, EIB or EBRD (we verify project’s needs assessment and choice of alternatives in the context of economic efficiency and environmental impact). We try to stop environmentally harmful projects, including those with a negative impact on Natura 2000 sites. We monitor and participate in the processes connected with construction of incinerators in Poland (e.g. in Kraków), transport infrastructure (e.g. Via Baltica, Via Carpatia, Expressway S3, regional airports) as well as in the processes related to development or revision of national and EU policies and strategies (e.g. revision of the EU transport policy, future EU financial perspective). We conduct activities for raising social awareness within the campaign “EIB out of fossil fuels” and on the EIB’s involvement in the countries of the Global South.

Moreover, Polish Green Network conducts activities within the Mott Foundation’s Programme: Partnership for Sustainable Development in Central and Eastern Europe, which is implemented by SF Team – a coalition of NGOs from Poland, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia and the Netherlands. The Programme’s objectives include:

providing NGOs with opportunities to act for sustainable development at the level of local, regional and national policy;
improving implementation of structural funds through analyses, research, public participation and promotion of good practices;
increasing institutional capacities of SF Team members and transfer of these capacities to the NGO sector.
In Poland the Programme is implemented by the partners of the Coalition of Polish NGOs for EU Funds. The Coalition’s members are: Polish Green Network, Institute of Environmental Economics, Institute for Sustainable Development, Environmental Association Eko-Unia and WWF Poland. The Coalition has been established in response to the need of public monitoring of EU funds in Poland. Among others it verifies conformity of selected projects with the sustainable development criteria. The Coalition supports the representatives of environmental NGOs in monitoring committees, disseminates information on the structural funds and the Cohesion Fund among NGOs other stakeholders and tries to influence the way in which these funds are spent. PGN is responsible for coordination of the Coalition’s activities.

One of the Programme’s important parts is promotion of good practices and projects that contribute to sustainable development, especially those that are implemented by NGOs or intersectoral partnerships. Since 2004, i.e. Poland’s accession to the EU, we have conducted several countrywide promotion campaigns, reaching our target audience by means of a series of touring exhibitions, an internet database of Good Projects, seminars, workshops, publications or advisory points. These activities were financed from the EU funds within the Operational Programme Technical Assistance.

The Programme has its dedicated, systematically updated website: http://ekoprojekty.pl. It provides NGOs and other interested parties with up-to-date information on implementation of EU funds in the context of sustainable development (information from the NGO representatives in the monitoring committees established for the programmes financed from the EU funds, current information on project calls, a database of good projects co-financed from the structural funds).

Programme’s leader: Marta Wiśniewska mwisniewska@bankwatch.org