Case study: Smart Village in Poland

Poland is one of the countries that has made significant progress in designing a support framework for smart villages in the future CAP strategic plan. The Management Authority has aroused great interest in rural communities by organizing Smart Village contests to disseminate information. Smart villages are encouraged through a simple support and training system based on one-time payments. The project aims to create contextual conditions to continue investments through EU funds.

Members of the thematic group “Smart Villages” suggested that Member States should take the next steps in developing support for smart villages in future CAP Strategic Plans, namely to identify the needs of rural communities that smart villages may have, identify opportunities and gaps and to design a package of interventions to enable rural communities to acquire innovative ideas for change to sustainable expansion.

Poland plans to invest 883 million euros for basic services and modernization of villages (about 67 million euros). These resources can be linked to support for Smart Village projects. To date, 639 such actions have been supported with EUR 97 million EAFRD and national sources. The budgets of LAGs (Local Action Groups) vary between 1.25 million euros and 4 million euros from public support.

As in Finland, the scope of potential support for smart villages in Poland will be expanded and incorporated to reflect the very diverse needs of villages in different regions of the country. There is no intention to develop a comprehensive national strategy. The goal is to be able to respond quickly and flexibly to the economic, social and environmental needs expressed by local communities. However, based on the identified needs, the main goal of the intervention is to ensure the provision of a wide range of services, the use of digital tools, the creation of an infrastructure that has a positive impact on the environment and climate.