Abstract:

The necessity to reduce the emission of substances to the natural environment and the limited resources are still a challenge in the process of implementing the principles of sustainable development in the economy. Poland has been taking advantage of the opportunities offered by EU funds for over 20 years. The resources from the Cohesion Fund and the European Regional Development Fund contracted under individual national programs are sources of financing that have constituted and are an important opportunity to achieve the objectives of the cohesion policy, including environmental protection, tailored to the specificity of the country and its regions. The publication analyzes how infrastructure investments implemented by communes with the use of EU funds from the ERDF and CF affect the reduction of pollution in the area of water and sewage management in individual voivodships and affect the quality of life of their inhabitants. It should be emphasized that, to a large extent, the scope of these activities would not be possible without EU funds. As part of the analysis of the collected data, quantitative methods, including classical descriptive statistics and taxonomic methods based on linear ordering of objects, were used for the research. The stated aim of the work was examined both in general and in the environmental dimension through result and product indicators broken down into categories by regions.