The specificity of state aid in Poland in comparison with European Union countries

Purpose – The aim of the paper is to identify the directions and instruments of state aid (with the exception of agriculture and the transport sector) used in Poland and to identify their specificities in relation to other countries of the European Union. Research method – The achievement of the above purpose required the use of research methods such as the analysis of legal acts, the collection and analysis of secondary data and the processing of the collected factual material using descriptive statistical methods. The data source was The State Aid Scoreboard, together with a variety of reports from the Office for Competition and Consumer Protection. Results – In 2017, the amount of state aid in Poland was twice as high as the average indicator in the European Union (1.51% and 0.76% respectively). Regional development (27.3%) was the main beneficiary of its allocation, while environmental protection was 55.4% in the EU. A specific feature of state aid in Poland is its sustainability, which does not exist to a similar extent in other Member States. Originality /value – According to the author's knowledge, this is one of the unique research papers devoted to the problem of state aid, especially in the context of the indication of the specific characteristics of state aid in Poland against the background of the countries of the European Union.