RESEARCH JOURNAL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GDAŃSK Transport Economics and Logistics Vol. 69 (2017) DOI 10.5604/01.3001.0010.5564 Ryszard Rolbiecki a) , Dorota Książkiewicz b) a) Transportation Policy Chair, Faculty of Economics, University of Gdańsk b) Transportation Policy Chair, Faculty of Economics, University of Gdańsk Ryszard Rolbiecki, Dorota Książkiewicz THE USE OF EU FUNDS FOR TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT IN POLAND The use of EU funds for transport infrastructure development… Abstract Significant backlog of transport infrastructure development in Poland is to a great extent a consequence of small capital spending on transport development. Since Poland entered the EU, European funds are an important source of support to infrastructure investments in transport sector. Financial support from the Euro- pean Regional Development Fund and the Cohesion Fund optained by Poland in years 2004–2006 and 2007–2013, allowed for a substantial increase in investment expenditure on transport infrastructure and as a result, allowed for accelerating infrastructure modernization. Also in the current budgetary perspective of 2014– 2020 there are no delays in the use of the structural funds and the Cohesion Fund. The processes of signing funding agreements and the submission of applications for refund are smoothly covered. Keywords: transport infrastructure, European Regional Development Fund, Cohesion Fund Introduction Insufficient level of investment on transport infrastructure results in the infra- structure in Poland not complying with European standards and still seen as one of the major barriers to socio-economic development of the country. Significant opportunities to break that barrier have emerged at the time of Polish accession to the European Union. Between 2004–2006 Poland acquired 12.5 billion EUR of European funds, and between 2007–2013 the amount reached 67.3 billion EUR, including about 25.1 billion for infrastructure investments in the transport sector. Even greater measures are available for Poland to be used in current budgetary