EU funds are a very important segment for the European Union itself, but even more important for the EU member states themselves. The purpose of EU funds is to implement the policies and objectives of the European Union, and an essential part of such goals and policies is precisely the development of local communities, especially the less developed local communities. Thus, today every local community is able to design and realize a quality project through EU funds. The funds themselves allow full funding or co-financing of quality projects that will contribute to the development of the local community, and improve the quality of life of the community. In this way, the local community can realize projects that it could never finance from its own budget and reduce dependence on the state itself and its budget. With smart ideas and knowledge, all communities, with a focus on the less developed, can develop and improve the living conditions for their populations. The purpose of this paper is to show how exactly EU funds affect local economic development (LED) and how much. It is also a purpose to demonstrating certain elements of LED as a science, in order to compare EU strategies, programs and policies implemented through EU funds with those strategies, models and methods advocated by LED as a science.