FOR Communications

In the face of the energy crisis, politicians' neglect in the development and modernization of the Polish energy sector is becoming increasingly visible. Freezing electricity prices is a costly and short-term solution, resulting from neglect in this area. The Polish energy mix, overly dependent on coal, requires decisive modernization actions, which, however, because of current policies, are systematically de-layed. The development of Polish nuclear energy should be considered a particular priority.

Over the last eight years, the Law and Justice (PiS) government in Poland redefined the boundaries of regulations governing the lifestyle of citizens, introducing a series of laws and regulations aimed at promoting desired or healthy habits and behaviors, while limiting access to products and services deemed harmful. From the closing shops on Sundays, through the introduction of a sugar tax, to the ban on the sale of energy drinks to minors—these and other decisions have sparked heated discus-sions about freedom, public health, and the effectiveness of the introduced measures. What were the actual effects of these regulations?

What negatively distinguishes Poland from other countries is not so much the level of taxes, although it has significantly increased in recent years and is higher than the OECD average, but the lack of neu-trality, the complexity, and variability of the system.

In recent years, the quality of law-making in Poland has significantly deteriorated. Practices such as ignoring procedures, bypassing public consultations, using the deputies’ initiative route for govern-ment projects, and last-minute insertions in the final stage of the legislative process have been a con-stant element of the political landscape. These practices served for the rapid implementation of the ruling party's will at the expense of the quality and transparency of legislation. While these practices were not new, they have particularly become widespread since 2015, a trend also confirmed by empir-ical data. This led to a further erosion of citizens' trust in the state—and worse, it undermined trust in democratic processes.

The draft amendment to the Act on the National Council of the Judiciary presented by the Minister of Justice stipulates a return to the election of the judicial part of the Council by judges. Complemented with the proposal to grant all judges - not just their representatives - an active and passive electoral right, the project aims to ensure the independence of the NCJ and limit the influence of politicians on the judges’ nomination process. Although most of the proposals in the project are reasonable, some of them may preserve the “corporate” nature of the Council and insufficiently guarantee its democratic legitimacy.

A week after it’s swearing-in, the Donald Tusk’s government presented Sejm with a draft state budget for 2024. It’s a budget with the highest deficit in the history of Poland, even larger than in the assumptions of the PiS government’s draft. According to the European Commission's estimates, Poland in 2023 and 2024 will have one of the highest public finance sector deficits in the European Union.

The Central Statistical Office's flash estimate for September, pointing to an inflation rate of 8.2%, offers little reason for optimism – inflation remains over three times above the tar-get. It's important to remember that the PiS government allocated tens of billions of zlotys this year to "freeze" prices. Without these highly expensive manipulations, made to mask inflation during the election year, prices would still be rising at a double-digit rate – we es-timate that in September the price level would have surged by as much as 17.9% YoY. Just because the government "freezes" prices before elections doesn't mean that post-election inflation won't sharply increase – no country can afford to perpetually maintain suppressed prices, and next year Poland will have one of the highest public finance deficits in the Euro-pean Union.

The data published by Eurostat reveals an alarming situation in which the Polish economy is now. In comparison to other economies in the European Union, it appears to be very weak in terms of economic growth and, simultaneously, particularly affected by inflation.

Elections are approaching, and the banners on the NBP headquarters are examples of the polit-ical involvement of this institution and the misuse of public resources for election campaign purposes. In May of this year, the Polish central bank published an Opinion of the NBP President re-garding the electoral proposals of PiS and PO. This document clearly shows the political preferences of Adam Glapiński, even though, according to the Constitution, the president of the National Bank of Poland should not engage in politics.

The Council of Ministers has decided to raise the minimum wage to 4242 zł gross from January 2024, and to 4300 zł from July. In relation to the average or median salary, the Polish minimum wage is already one of the highest in Europe. Despite this, it will increase again next year by more than one fifth.