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euros, or 500,000 euros if it committed to creating a minimum of 100
jobs for five years, 20 positions per year. A range of other tax
exemptions and training subsidies also encouraged ecological investment
and the creation of technological parks.

The government’s principal initial focus was less economic
development than it was halting the vertiginous economic and social
slump of these former industrial zones. The highly centralized nature of
the Polish system continued throughout the first post-communist decade,
and only in 1999 were regional reforms implemented. Research has
amply demonstrated that there were clear instances of misappropriation
of industrial assets during this first decade, but this pattern appears
universal in contexts in which public assets are privatized. A number of
top managers from the ancien regime were also able to keep their
positions, particularly in the heavy industry sector that characterized the
early special zones. It might be assumed that these early zones were
host to rampant corruption and misappropriated assets by foreign
investors, Polish entrepreneurs, former directors, and local political
leaders with long-standing connections. Beginning in the 2000s,
however, the zones came under strict national and European oversight
after substantial flows of public funds into the zones began. An
additional factor in altering the corrupt environment was the arrival
multinational for whom respecting the rules is a fundamental aspect of
doing business. This suggests that European and national oversight was
a determining factor in reducing corruption. The regional reforms, which
were consistent with Chapter 21 of the Acquis Communautaire, also
gave the new, democratically elected regional authorities the power to
control regional strategies. Regional authorities were also responsible for
equipping the special economic zones with needed infrastructure, also in
turn affecting the tax aspects of national and EU policies.

After Poland joined the EU in 2004, it gained access to European
structural funding richly complemented existing national aid to the
special zones. This raised questions concerning competitiveness as
defined by EU regulations, but Polish zones were granted an exception

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