The impact of EU funds on the development of entrepreneurship after Poland’s accession to the EU – a review of selected forms of support (Wplyw funduszy unijnych na rozwoj przedsiebiorczosci po akcesji Polski do UE – przeglad wybranych form wsparcia)

The development of micro and small enterprises translates into economic success of the Member States, therefore projects realised by this economic sector receive such strong support and large subsidies. Without doubt the opportunity to obtain subsidies for business activity whose aim was to enhance competitiveness generated the increase of new business entities.According to data published at the end of September 2015, about 31,000 enterprises were subsidised by EU funds in order to execute their investment projects and about 250 business environment institutions were granted subsidies. The projects realised contributed to the social and economic development of regions, revitalisation of the economy and the enhancement of our international competitiveness. EU funds, on one hand, have become one of the major determinants of increasing the innovation of the Polish economy, on the other a priority form of external financing as a major component of the so-called micro-entrepreneurs. These are manifest in highly popular programs from which Polish companies have been able to realize direct investment in the reconstruction of technology parks along with improving the competence of their employees. The purpose of this article is to identify, compare and evaluate the use of some forms of enterprise development support from EU funds and present the results of the survey which was completed in 2014. The presented results confirm the high assessment of the importance of EU funds in the investment process implemented by Polish entrepreneurs.