UE REGIONAL POLICY IN THE PROGRAMMING PERIOD 2014-2020 : CHALLENGES AND PROBLEMS

Abstract

The regional Policy belongs to the most important activity areas of the European Union and absorbs an Essentials part of its budget. That is why the future shape of this policy gives way to controversies and emotion between the heads of state, European functionaries and citizens. The political and institutional frames of this policy have been established through the signing of the Treaty of Lisbon (December 2009), creation of the new European Commission (February 2010) and acceptance of the new longterm strategy: Europe 2020 (March - June 2010). The meetings and talks concerning the amount of EU budget resources in the next programming period and the allocation of these resources between various priorities and states will begin shortly. This paper indicates the problems, which are connected with the regional policy in the current programming period, as well as a forecast concerning the choice of cohesion states and regions based on status quo basis. It means, that it was assumed, that no wide ranging changes will be implemented in EU regional policy and the amount of structural funds for its financing will not be reduced. Finally, the proposals for the reform of the regional policy have been presented.