The draft resolution of the Council of Ministers published on Monday envisages that PLN 250 million from the COVID-19 Counteracting Fund will go to municipalities where state-owned agricultural enterprises once operated. Money is to be transferred to local government accounts in December 2020. The aim is to support local investments.
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The program of aid for the villages where the state-owned farms were located was announced in mid-September by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki during the 3rd National Festival of “Grateful Polish Village” in Bralin. – Later this year, we will start a support program for former state farms. It is important to level the chances of those who were so painfully affected by the injustice of the Polish transformation, said the head of government.
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On Monday, a draft resolution of the Council of Ministers on this matter was published. Paweł Bossernaker, Secretary of State in the Ministry of Interior and Administration, was responsible for its development. According to the proposal, additional financial support in the amount of PLN 250 million will be allocated to communes where state-owned farms operated. The source of financing is to be the COVID-19 Counteracting Fund. The project covers about 600 municipalities, and its effects can be felt by about 6 million inhabitants.
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In the regulatory impact assessment, we read that the money, via the voivodes, is to be transferred to the accounts of local governments by December 2020 at the latest. They will be allocated to specific investments proposed by local governments.
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Maximum three requests
Each commune will be able to submit a maximum of three applications for support for a maximum of three investments. The value of a single investment cannot be less than PLN 50,000. PLN or more than PLN 5 million. Also, the total value of the investment, if the municipality submits more than one application, may not exceed PLN 5 million.
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The explanatory memorandum to the draft explains that the support will in particular include expansion of sewage and road infrastructure, construction of centers enabling the integration and activation of residents, or thermal modernization of buildings. The money can also be used to finance regeneration tasks and low-emission projects.
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Moreover, it was indicated that investments initiated by the inhabitants of the commune, village administrators, village councils, estate management boards, as well as other representatives of the local community and entities conducting or intending to conduct social activity in the commune, including non-governmental organizations, will be preferred.
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Applications submitted by communes will be reviewed by the competent territorial unit of the National Center for Agricultural Support in terms of meeting formal requirements and social impact assessment. Then voivodes will give their opinion. Subsequently, the content-related applications will be assessed by a commission appointed by the prime minister, which will include representatives of individual ministries. Its recommendations will be forwarded to the President of the Council of Ministers, who will decide on the submission of the payment order to the voivode. He will pass them on to communes.
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Substantiation
“After the liquidation of state-owned farms, the inhabitants of the localities where these entities operated most often experienced structural unemployment, which had a key impact on their negative social situation. Many years of neglect and the lack of appropriate state intervention deepened the economic degradation of these areas. areas – resulting from the COVID-19 epidemic – a decline in Gross Domestic Product “- was noted in the justification to the project.
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As explained in the regulatory impact assessment, the loss of income and the increase in costs of municipalities caused a significant risk of non-implementation of investment plans for 2020 by local governments, and thus – a further lack of investment in former state-owned farm areas. This, in turn, contributes to the deepening of social and economic inequalities in these areas.
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The authors of the project hope that the proposal will contribute to to counteract inequalities as well as improve the lives of residents.
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The draft resolution, which provides for support for former state farm villages, was published 29 years after the adoption of the act under which state-owned farms were liquidated.
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photo-source">Main photo source: Shutterstock
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