On Thursday, the permanent commission of the Council of Ministers adopted the draft of the revision of the national reconstruction plan. According to the Deputy Minister of Finance, Yan Shishko, it will be discussed by the government next week.
“The KPO revision project has already been approved by the Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers,” Deputy Minister of Finance and Regional Policy Jan Szyszko reported on the X website on Thursday. He added that the revision plan will be discussed in the government on Tuesday (January 28 of this year).
What changes have taken place in KPO?
Shishko announced on Tuesday that the reform bill has been sent to the prime minister’s office. As he later said, the project proposed, among other things: to increase the budget of the energy support fund by 1 billion PLN to a total of 70 billion PLN. These funds are invested, among others: in energy networks and energy storage. In addition, the revision project includes an early calculation of 10 KPO metrics. “These are reports, analyzes and statements that we have prepared ahead of time. Thanks to this, we will invest part of the money in Poland faster,” explained the deputy head of the Ministry of FiPR. One of the most important points of the revision is the replacement of the contribution reform for civil rights contracts, which was included by the previous government in the KPO reform. Shishko, the goal is to replace it with “total reform of the national labor inspectorate”. Finance Minister Katarzyna Pelczynska-Nalec and Deputy Minister Szyszko previously announced that Poland would not qualify for the KPO milestone of receiving contributions for civil rights contracts, according to the Prime Minister’s decision. In December, negotiations began with the European Commission to replace the need to pay contributions for contracts with one of the alternative proposals, including the above-mentioned reform of the National Labor Inspection.
This year there are two more revisions to KPO
In mid-January, Shishko announced in Brussels that negotiations with the European Commission on the reform should be completed within a month. The government will then formally submit an application to the EC to amend the KPO. He also assessed that Poland is “in a good place” in terms of employee protection. – This means that the reforms negotiated by the previous government in the KPO of Poland are not relevant, – he said. As Pełczynska-Nałęcz reported last year, two technical renewals of KPO will take place in 2025. Both of them aim to adapt KPO to current and real needs. In the first revision, the Ministry of FiPR wants to abandon the reform of contributions for civil rights contracts. The second starts after receiving payments from the fourth and fifth payment requests from KPO Poland. The last revision of the Polish KPO was adopted by the Council of the European Union in mid-July 2024. At that time, it changed, among other things: the introduction of a tax on fuel vehicles into the system of subsidies for the purchase, rental and leasing of electric vehicles by individuals.
What is KPO?
The National Recovery and Stabilization Plan (NRP) is a program designed to strengthen the Polish economy. Funds of this program are intended to help Poland to quickly achieve previously set goals, implement new investments, accelerate economic growth and increase jobs. Within this program, Poland receives funds in the form of non-refundable grants and soft loans. After the last update, the National Recovery and Stability Plan consists of 57 investments and 54 reforms. Poland received EUR 59.8 billion (PLN 257.1 billion) from KPO, including EUR 25.27 billion (PLN 108.6 billion) in subsidies and EUR 34.54 billion (PLN 148.5 billion) in soft loans takes According to the EU objectives, the largest part of the KPO budget is allocated to climate goals (44.96%) and digital transformation (21.28%).
Main image source: Shutterstock
