On the 20 December 2007 Minister of the Regional Development Elżbieta Bienkowska signed an agreement on implementing Swiss-Polish Cooperation Program. This program is a form of non-repayable assistance granted by Switzerland to Poland and other 9 Member States of the European Union, which joined the EU on 1 May 2004. Signing this document means allocating more than 1 billion Swiss francs for the ten new Member States. Almost half of this assistance (approximately CHF 489 million, or about 310 million euros) will be allocated to support for our country. The Swiss aid goal is to reduce socio-economic disparities existing between Poland and the developed EU countries and also differences on the territory of Poland - between urban centers and poorly developed regions. Starting Swiss-Polish Cooperation Program is planned for the second quarter of 2008

The projects which can be supported:

• security, stability, reform support: initiatives for regional development of the suburban and less developed regions, increasing the protection of the European Union’s eastern borders,
• environment and infrastructure: reconstruction, rebuilding and expansion of the environmental infrastructure and improvement of the environment (including solid waste management, renewable energy systems, improvement of energy efficiency), improvement of the public transport systems, biodiversity and ecosystem protection and support for cross-border environmental initiatives,
• the private sector: improvement of the business environment and access to capital for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), development of the private sector and export promotion of SMEs,,
• social development and human resources: health service (including prevention and health promotion campaigns and improvement of social welfare), research and development (including the Scholarship Fund, research projects). 

Switzerland has allocated for Poland a total amount of 489 million Swiss Francs.