Obtaining funds from the EU budget by rural communes of the Masovian voivodeship

Non-repayable funds, including those offered within the framework of EU funds, constitute an important source of funding for activities undertaken by communes. The aim of the article is to define the level of absorption of funds from the EU budget by rural communes of the Masovian voivodeship in 2006-2009. The typology of the communes was done on the basis of the level of their socio-economic development (synthetic index zi) and the amount of funds obtained (absorption index Wa). The statistical data came from the Local Data Bank (BDL) of the Central Statistical Office (GUS). Rural communes of the Masovian voivodeship are highly varied in terms of obtaining funds from the EU budget. In the case of 10.5% of the rural communes in the analysed voivodeship no funds were obtained from the EU in the period in question. Almost one third of the rural communes is characterised by a low level of development and a medium level of funds absorption. The least numerous (7%) are communes with a high level of devel-opment and low absorption. Communes with a low level of development and low absorp-tion of EU funds exist in every subregion of the voivodeship.