Poland’s opposition Conservatives (PiS) and President Karol Nawrocki have raised objections to proposals from the centre-left government, led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, for Poland to access €43.4 billion in European Union defence loans.
SAFE, the Security Action for Europe programme, would allow Warsaw to borrow on favourable terms to finance military projects. Poland’s plan for using the funds has already been approved in Brussels.
The loans taken up would be repaid over 45 years and carry interest rates that the Polish Government argues are unavailable on commercial markets.
To get the money, though, the Polish parliament needs to pass legislation for the creation of a new financial instrument to handle the funds, and no legislation will come into force if the PiS-allied Nawrocki decides to veto it.
During the National Security Council meeting held on February 11, he questioned the government’s enthusiasm with regard to the SAFE loans saying: “Too many questions are piling up and there are too few answers.”
Nawrocki and PiS are concerned that Poland is to be forced to purchase European weapons that could lead to complications in its relations with the US from whom Poland has been purchasing most of its significant military hardware and arms of late.
Under EU rules, at least 65 per cent of the value of contracts financed through SAFE must originate in the EU, the European Economic Area or Ukraine, with no more than 35 per cent coming from outside, which is intended to bolster European defence industry capacity.
The President warned that the programme represents “an enormous debt that will be repaid by our successors” and insisted on the disclosure of the full list of 139 projects before signing the law.
“We are checking whether the SAFE programme can genuinely strengthen the security of the Republic of Poland,” Nawrocki said, adding that, in his opinion, the draft law still lacks a sufficiently strong anti-corruption control mechanism.
The PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński added that the release of funds from the EU would fall under the conditionality mechanism. That makes funding dependent on member states accepting European Commission strictures.
Kaczyński said: “This is no way for a sovereign country to build up its armed forces. The conditionality mechanism gives the European institutions the power to use blackmail and withhold funding at any moment of their choosing.”
Yesterday, Tusk hit back at Nawrocki accusing him of preparing to veto the legislation and of being too ready to accommodate the US. “We will not be a vassal of the USA,” he said.
The Tusk government fears that a presidential veto would slow down planned contracts, increase the risk of missing the single procurement deadline at the end of May and could reduce the share of funding directed into Polish industry.
“Nearly 200 billion zloty will go to Poland on very favourable terms, otherwise unavailable on the financial market. According to the estimates of generals involved in the project, over 80 per cent of the funds will go to companies operating in Poland,” said Tusk.
The legislation the government has tabled in parliament, though, does not include a legal provision that 80 per cent of the funds will remain in Poland. Therefore the PiS has tabled an amendment to that effect and made its support for the government’s legislation conditional on that provision being passed.
The PiS has also tabled amendments to ensure that the SAFE funding will not replace existing funds available to the defence ministry but will be extra money for Poland’s armed forces.
For PiS, Poland’s security rests in its close ties with the US and not with the EU and the fact there are 10,000 US troops stationed on Polish soil. No country in which US troops were stationed has ever been directly attacked by the Russians.
Anything that shifts spending decisions closer to Brussels PiS treats suspiciously because it is seen as the EU attempting to take over from NATO and to marginalise the US.
The opposition and Nawrocki argue that defence funds should stay firmly under national control and that Poland should continue buying heavily from American suppliers, in line with US President Donald Trump’s calls for allies to purchase US equipment.
