The european fund
for the development of polish
villages

Warszawa 00-814, Miedziana 3 a
tel.: (+48 22) 639-87-63, 639 87 64, 639-81-25; fax: (+48 22) 620-90-93
http://www.efrwp.com.pl, e-mail: efrwp@efrwp.com.pl

The European Fund for the Development of Polish Villages (EFDPV) has been one of the first foundations in Poland created (in 1990) by initiative of the then European Economic Community (EEC) - the factual and exclusive founder of the EFDPV.

The statutory aim of the Foundation's activities has been the development of Polish countryside in the range of technical and communal infrastructure of rural areas, restructuring of agriculture through development of small and medium scale enterpreneurship (beyond agriculture) in rural areas as well as in education and both economic and civic development of local communities.

The Foundation carries out exclusively statutory financial activities in rural areas, i.e., in the areas covering all agricultural, forestal, and other open area, including rural settlements and small cities of up to 20 thousand of inhabitants - having these kinds of area distinct peripheral characteristics, carrying out mutual service functions and constituting local integrated and multifunctional development centres as an element of the rural areas development strategy.

The loans from the Foundation's resources have been awarded through the intermediary of bank structures on the basis of credit regulations laid out by the Foundation, and cooperation agreements between the Foundation and the crediting banks. The operational costs of individual credit lines have been borne by the Foundation. The banks however have to cover the full credit risk for the Foundation.
Two grant programmes (grants for rural public and non-public health care centres and for solid waste dumping sites) - in contrast to the credit lines implemented with the intermediary of the crediting banks - have been carried out directly by the Foundation.

In 2005 the European Fund for the Development of Polish Villages has been carrying out seven credit lines and two grant programmes in the area of the development of technical and civic rural infrastructure, and four credit lines in the area of broadly understood small enterpreneurship beyond agriculture, which creates new jobs in rural areas;

1. Loans for the development of technical and communal infrastructure in rural areas including:
   • Loans for rural community primary and secondary schools, as well as vocational agricultural schools;
   • Loans for the construction, modernization and repairs of public roads, of communal and district level, situated beyond cities;
   • Loans for water supply systems;
   • Loans for communal sewage disposal and treatment systems on rural areas;
   • Loans for the development of information society infrastructure;
   • Loans for the non-public health care centres;
   • Loans for the protection and utilization of cultural heritage structures in rural areas.
2. Grant programmes including:
   • Health care in rural areas, concerning the public and non-public health care centres;
   • Environmental protection in rural areas, concerning the construction of rural solid waste dumping sites and the purchase of containers for the collection of solid waste.

Until 2005, the European Fund for the Development of Polish Villages has spent over Zl 541 million supporting projects connected with the development of rural infrastructure (grants and loans). 7.600 rural infrastructure projects has been co-financed, the total cost estimation value of which amounted to approx. Zl 3.2 billion.

3. Loans for the development of small enterpreneurship on the rural areas (beyond agriculture) including:
   • Loans for small enterpreneurship (SME) projects on the rural areas connected with the creation of new jobs for the unemployed;
   • Loans for the broadly understood agricultural projects on the rural areas;
   • Micro-credits for the economic activities beyond agriculture on the rural areas;
   • Loans for animals health care services in the countryside (veterinary loans).

Material effects of supporting investment projects of small enterpreneurship in the countryside - including loans for agricultural investments, the first programme implemented by the Foundation - made possible, i.a., the creation of over 2.5 thousand new jobs, the maintenance of over 5 thousand jobs, the creation of 3,620 new lodging places in the countryside (agriculture), 158 recreation facilities, as well as approx. 700 projects of food processing and storage of grain, including 300 bakeries, 143 flour mills, 37 maccaroni plants, aporox. 300 meat processing projects, 140 milk processing projects, 46 fruit and vegetable processing projects.

Detailed information on the material effects of supporting by the Foundation the development of rural infrastructure and small enterpreneurship (beyond agriculture) creating new jobs in the countryside, has been presented in the following table.

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