EU money: 110,000 companies under scrutiny
Obtaining subsidies just for the sake of subsidies will not make your business start spinning on its own. You need to have a business idea and invest in research and development. If you do that, you will develop much more than entities that do not use subsidies - according to the InfoCredit analysis.
In 2019-23, almost 110,000 investments and projects were implemented in Poland with the participation of EU funds, for which beneficiaries obtained a total of PLN 103.07 billion. Based on our own databases and information from, among others, the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection and other open sources, we decided to check how Polish companies have used EU funds in recent years and how this has translated into their development. We have analyzed all projects with EU funding, the implementation of which began after 1 January 2019. We have taken into account only EU funds. In total, we have analyzed 110,000 entities.
According to InfoCredit statistics, the largest beneficiaries of EU funds were public administration and national defense, as well as compulsory social insurance (32.2 thousand completed projects), industrial processing (13.6 thousand), consortia consisting of several entities from different sectors (7.5 thousand), education (6.9 thousand), entities conducting scientific and technical activities (6.8 thousand), financial and insurance activities (6.1 thousand), other service activities (5.7 thousand), as well as entities from the healthcare sector (5.4 thousand) and information and communication (3.9 thousand). At the bottom of the list is mining and quarrying, which implemented only 169 projects with the participation of EU funds. This sector, on the other hand, was distinguished by the most efficient use of these funds. Here, the profitability of companies using subsidies increased the most compared to entities that did not use them – by 6.5 percentage points. For example, on a national scale, the difference was 1.1 percentage points.
In terms of numbers, the largest number of projects was implemented under two regional programs: for the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship (over 17 thousand) and the Wielkopolska Voivodeship (11.2 thousand). In terms of the amount of funding, the most popular were: the Smart Growth Operational Program, from which Polish companies obtained over PLN 24.6 billion, the Knowledge Education Development Operational Program (PLN 11.4 billion) and the Infrastructure and Environment Operational Program (over PLN 9.4 billion).
The most active in obtaining EU funds were companies from the Silesian Voivodeship, which received a total of PLN 9.9 billion for the implementation of almost 8.5 thousand projects. Next came companies from Małopolska (PLN 7.9 billion) and the Łódź province (PLN 6.6 billion). In terms of numbers, the largest number of projects with EU funding were implemented by companies in the Warmian-Masurian province (almost 18 thousand), the Wielkopolska province (13 thousand) and the Łódź province (10.8 thousand).
The largest number of projects implemented by beneficiaries concerned promoting social inclusion, combating poverty and discrimination (almost 30.9 thousand) and strengthening the competitiveness of SMEs (over 27.2 thousand). In turn, the largest amount of funding (over PLN 18.1 billion in total) went to companies for activities related to strengthening scientific research, technological development and innovation.
Analyzing the data of around 110,000 companies that have obtained EU funding, it is clear that their revenues and profitability have increased compared to those that have not received it. A good example here is the wholesale trade industry. Thanks to EU funds, companies in this sector recorded twice the increase in revenues in 2018-2021 compared to entities that did not receive funding. On the other hand, statistics show that companies that did not apply for EU funds are also doing well. This means that aid funds are not necessary to function quite well in competitive conditions. Of course, if the company is well managed.
Our analysis shows that wholesale and retail trade, as well as vehicle repair, are the industries that have benefited the most from EU support. In 2018-2021, companies from these sectors that received EU funds increased their revenues by as much as 55 percent. For comparison, the revenues of companies not using EU support increased by 27 percent in the same period. A similar relationship is also most clearly visible in the healthcare, education, water supply, sewage and waste management sectors, as well as in agriculture and forestry.
The most active in terms of the ability to use EU funds to generate new revenues were companies from the West Pomeranian Voivodeship – in this region, the revenues of companies that took advantage of such support increased by 65 percent in 2018-2021. For comparison, the revenues of companies not using EU funds increased by only 16 percent in the same period. In the second-placed Silesian Voivodeship, these indicators were 52 and 25 percent, respectively.
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