The use of repayable financial instruments in the process of regeneration of degraded urban areas on the example of the JESSICA initiative

This study is supported by the National Science Centre, Poland (2015/19/D/HS5/01561)

Regeneration – an integrated process of activities undertaken in the spatial, social and economic dimensions – should lead to improvement of the living conditions of inhabitants of degraded urban areas. The European Union in 2007-2013 allocated amount of money for this objective within the JESSICA initiative which is based on financial engineering mechanisms. Experiences gained so far allow formulating the statement that JESSICA is highly financially-effective instrument that brings unsatisfactory spatial and social results. The scope of projects often is reduced to infrastructural investments and does not reflect the complexity of regeneration process. In the article the authors analyse experiences of one of the Polish regions – Wielkopolskie – with the use of JESSICA, point out main problems and formulate recommendations.