Przestrzenny wymiar wsparcia obszarów wiejskich w Polsce ze środków polityki spójności

The article examines the scale of absorption and spatial distribution of European Union (EU) funds for the implementation of the Cohesion Policy (CP) in rural areas in Poland. The study covered all 2,173 rural and urban-rural municipalities in Poland in 2007-2018 during two financial perspectives of the EU: 2007-2013 and 2014-2020. The hypothesis was verified, i.e. municipalities located in provincial capitals’ functional urban areas (FUA) are characterized by a higher level of CP funds absorption than municipalities located in the rest of the country. Data for the study were obtained from the databases KSI-SIMIK 07-13 (2007-2013 perspective) and SL2014 (2014-2020 perspective). In the analyzed period, approximately PLN 500 billion was allocated in Poland from CP, of which 38% was to rural areas. Most funds were spent in rural areas on transport investments and infrastructure, while the least spent were on environmental protection and digitization projects. The spatial distribution of CP funds per capita has been presented using the Jenks Natural Breaks Classification optimization method. Three classes of municipalities were obtained according to the level of absorption: low (57% of communes), average (28% of communes), and high (15% of communes). The study confirmed that municipalities located in provincial capitals’ FUAs, despite the fact that they constitute 10% of the surveyed communes and 17% of the surveyed population, are characterized by 2.5 times higher absorption of CP funds per capita compared to other municipalities.