Poland followed another model of adaptation to European regional policy. After a
hard and long battle, Poland carried out a complete territorial reform introducing
new self-government units at regional and county levels in 1998. (We have to add
that this territorial division has historical roots in Poland having 17 regions prior
to 1975.) As regards the reform process and the problems of implementation we
can realise that development policy was among the rationales of the reform yet no
decision was taken on this aspect during the reform process (Emilewicz – Wolek
2002). The new regions established were not equipped with competencies and
money. Although the biggest debates were generated by the number and the delimitation
of the regions in the course of the preparation of the reform, the competencies
are the key elements of the assessment of the success of decentralisation.
From this aspect the Polish regionalisation is failed also in spite of the deliberate
structural coincidence of regional development and public administration units.