1 The ex-post evaluation of the EU Cohesion Policy Programmes 2004-2006 on Polish regions: the impact on regional income and employment. Andrzej Cieślik, Bartłomiej Rokicki Wydział Nauk Ekonomicznych, Uniwersytet Warszawski, ul. Długa 44/50 00-241 Warszawa Email: cieslik@wne.uw.edu.pl , brokicki@wne.uw.edu.pl Summary In this paper we study the impact of European Cohesion Policy Programmes on regional income and employment in Poland. We find that the these programmes will hardly affect economic performance of the most developed Polish voivodships, while the regions with medium and low level of per capita income may improve their economic performance. However, despite the positive short-run effects the least developed areas may become the net losers of the process of European integration in the long-run. Keywords: Economic integration, infrastructures, regional policy, EU Cohesion Policy JEL Classification Numbers: F15, H54, R11, R12, R58 1. Introduction ‘ ... the Community shall aim at reducing disparities between the levels of development of the various regions and the backwardness of the least favoured regions …’ Treaty Establishing the European Community, 1958 The concern for Europe’s disadvantaged regions is one of the main goals of the European Union and the EU spends about one-third of its budget on these regions. Although the need to promote balanced development by reducing the gap between the different regions and helping the most backward to catch up was recognized already in the preamble to the Treaty of Rome, until the end of the 1970s the task of helping less favoured regions was a matter of national authorities in particular member states rather than of the European Community. 1 1 Although the first of today existing structural funds – the European Social Fund (ESF) was created in 1960 to help unemployed and disadvantaged people to return to work, it has not received its regional dimension until 1971. In 1962, when it was agreed to create the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) was set up and continues to this day to support and stimulate agricultural production in the EU. In 1964 it was split into a Guidance and a Guarantee Section and it is the Guidance Section which contributes to spending on the structural reform of agriculture and promotes