FOR Communications

When the public opinion focuses on yet another strike of employees of LOT Polish Airlines, few commentators analyze the state funded transformations of the carrier. On 10 October, LOT became officially part of the state-owned Polska Grupa Lotnicza (PGL, Polish Aviation Group), a holding to which assets of three other aviation companies were also transferred (LOT Aircraft Maintenance Services, LS Airport Services, and LS Technics).

Three weeks before November 12, some MPs from PiS (The Law and Order Party) submitted a draft bill to make this day a public holiday. Late in the evening on the next day, 23 October, the project was adopted.

The fast economic growth, in place since 2014 due to the good economic situation in the global economy, leads to an increased state's income.  Combined with the limited growth rate of some expenditures, it gives the government more room for maneuver.

Relief for starting a business and introduction of unregistered business activity are two of the few real, albeit minor, improvement introduced in the "business constitution," although it should be stressed that such minor changes cannot replace a comprehensive reform of the tax and social security systems.

The crucial factor for the safety of public finances is the deficit of the entire public finance sector. The state budget is responsible for less than half of the expenditure. In addition, the public finance sector includes budgets of local governments, the Social Insurance Institution, the Agricultural Social Insurance Institution, the National Health Fund and a number of other entities.

When politicians start to distribute taxpayers' money, it invites lobbying. Even the leading industries start to pretend that they need support. Polish video game industry is no different. The market capitalization of CD Projekt has already overtaken KGHM. At the same time, it lobbies for CIT tax relief for the so-called "Cultural games" through the Polish Games Association, together with other leading producers.

The five questions referred for a preliminary ruling regarded recent changes in the laws regulating the judicial system.

The questions complement the proceedings conducted by the European Commission, which also has doubts regarding the Act on the Supreme Court.

The Timbro Sharing Economy Index is the first global index of the sharing economy. The index has been compiled using traffic volume data and scraped data, and provides a unique insight into the driving factors behind the peer-to-peer economy.

The Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy proposes to return to the harmful policy of the PiS government from 2016-2017: the stepwise increases in the minimum wage(14.3% in total). In 2019, the minimum wage would increase from the current PLN 2100 to 2250. This raise (7.1%) would be higher than the forecasted increase in whole-economy wages (5.6%). 

For PiS (The Law and Justice Party), any - real or apparent - ills that plague Polish society serve a pretext to increase the politicization of the economy. In 2013, that is before the PiS came to power, Poland was ahead of other OECD countries and the European Union in terms of state ownership. Recently, however, nothing has been done to reduce the interference of politicians in the economy. On the contrary, we are still seeing new steps towards further nationalization of enterprises. After the Bank Pekao S.A. and power plants, the time has come for the emergency medical services.