Poland

As indicated in the Poland Development Gateway (see references), there are several factors that impede the realization of public private partnerships in Poland. Chief among these are insufficient legislation and a lack of ability to organize tenders and allow orders. As an example of such problems, the World Bank Report (2004), which focused specifically on PPPs in water and wastewater companies, concluded that Polish legislation is characterized by controversy with respect to private companies' involvement in water supply and sanitation. There is no specific law regulating questions of ownership of water infrastructure. As a result, it remains uncertain whether or not the private operator can own such infrastructure or whether the municipality should retain ownership. Such issues work to limit private sector participation in the water sector.

The whole of Poland is an Objective One region for the EU, which makes is the highest priority designation for European aid for areas where prosperity, measured in Gross Value Added (GVA) per head of population, is 75% or less of the European average. At the same time, however, there are barriers to the development of business in the country. The principal barriers at the time of writing were political uncertainty, including uncertainty over fiscal policy and privatization; this in turn leads to anxiety on the part of business over the ability of the government to control the budget deficit. Other important impediments are the continuing negative influence of bureaucracy, including concerns over the capacity of the courts to handle commercial cases, and underdeveloped infrastructure, especially in relation to roads.

The issue of poor infrastructure in Poland has been recognized as one of the most important barriers to the development of existing companies and to securing foreign investment.

Despite Poland's access to the EU's Structural and Cohesion Funds since accession, the country's public finances remain stretched and budget funding in terms of 'own contributions' - which are needed to match funding from Brussels - is likely to lead to further cuts in socially sensitive expenditures. Poland's ability to absorb the entire €12 billion worth of funds on offer over the years 2004 to 2006 is therefore in doubt.31 One unthinkable consequence could be that Poland may end up in its early years of EU membership as a net contributor to the EU budget, to the benefit of richer countries such as France and the UK.

Although there is a wide variety of models and mechanisms for PPPs that are subject to country-specific needs, Poland may reasonably be expected to gain from the experience of other countries that have already implemented such projects.