Malopolska Region will receive 500 mlneuro from EU for human capital investment

The Malopolska Region, which includes Krakow, will receive half a billion euro from the EU over the next seven years for education, social programs and business development, the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper has reported. The money ? 10 times more than what the region has received in any other year — will be part of 9.7 bln euro that the EU is giving Poland under its human-capital-development program, according to the Ministry of Regional Development.
?I can assure you that as a region we did not get shortchanged on the distribution,? said Marek Nawara, governor of the Malopolskie Voivodeship.
The region has been disappointed with what the EU has given it for infrastructure ? 1.3 bln euro.
Since 2004, ?we have had around 150 mln zloty? from the EU?s human-capital-development fund, said Aneta Okonska, a labor-market strategist at the Voivodeship Employment Office in Krakow.
The amount that the region got for the years 2004-2007 was 200 mln zloty.
The new windfall will allow the region to identify the right priorities for helping residents attain better lives, Gazeta Wyborcza reported. The region is going to use the money to take a new approach to social programs, Nawara said.
?We will not split the money among minor projects,? he explained. Instead, the region will focus on developing tourism, economic development and increasing scholarships ?for poor but very clever young people,? he said.The newspaper said the Malopolska Region should put the money into areas that include labor programs, improving the abilities of workers and businesses to adapt to change, strengthening social integration and fighting discrimination and strengthening public administration and the non-governmental sector.