Poland along with seven other CentralEuropean and Baltic countries, joined the European Union(EU) on May 1, 2004.This was a historical event, markingthe country's final reintegration with the rest ofEurope, and the importance of this from a geopolitical pointof view is undeniable.For Poland and the other new membercountries, the distinction between external and internalconvergence is less important from the EU perspective asvirtually all regions within these countries have incomelevels significantly below the EU average and are eligiblefor financial support from the union.Thus, these countrieshave considerable discretion in how the EU financial supportis allocated among its constituent regions and among variousprograms.This is done according to National DevelopmentPlans (NDPs) and Community Support Frameworks (CSFs) agreedwith the EU.This report discusses regional incomedisparities and policies in Poland and the likely impact onthese on European Union (EU) accession and providesrecommendations for the successor National Development Plan(NDP) currently under preparation for the next EU budgetperiod (2007-13).The report is organized as follows:Section 2 discusses external and internal convergence inPoland during the transition period and analyses the sourcesof regional income disparities; Section 3 discusses thelikely impact of EU accession and Section 4 examinesregional policy in Poland.
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