POLAND: EU’s Migration Relocation Program & more – 16th Oct 2025

Witam from BA! This is the Rorshok Poland Update from the 16th of October twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Poland.

Let’s start off with foreign affairs. On Saturday, the 11th, Donald Tusk, the Prime Minister, said Poland won’t join the EU’s migration relocation program, which relocates migrants so countries with fewer migrants help those who receive the most. According to the program, countries that don’t meet their relocation targets have to provide resources or pay fines.

Poland, along with Hungary and Slovakia, opposed this solidarity rule that forces countries to share the migrant burden.

Tusk and President Nawrocki said that Poland’s situation is unique, with so many Ukrainian refugees, Ukraine’s ongoing war with Russia (which keeps bringing in migrants into the country) and heavy migrant pressure on the eastern border with Belarus.

In other news, on Thursday, the 9th, the Civic Coalition fined MP Franciszek Sterczewski for missing Sejm sessions without a proper excuse while he was on board a humanitarian flotilla to Gaza.

Sikorski asked on Twitter whether Poland should cover evacuation costs for citizens, including MPs, who went into a war zone. Sterczewski responded that MPs have a duty to be where human rights are violated and called on the government to back efforts to stop the genocide in Gaza.

While most parliamentarians stay quiet about Sterczewski’s actions, others, like Klaudia Jachira, a member of the Civic Coalition, think he should treat it as a private mission, thank the Foreign Ministry for helping the detained crew, and talk with the Civic Coalition about his future there.

As for Gaza, on Tuesday, the 14th, Jacek Jaśkowiak, the Mayor of Poznań, western Poland, said he opposes ending cooperation with Ra’anana, a partner city near Tel Aviv in Israel. More than 2,000 people signed a petition that members of the Razem party submitted, demanding that the city cut ties to protest Israel’s actions in Palestine.

Jaśkowiak said he feels for the Palestinians and knows Gaza has suffered, but he doesn’t support cutting ties, saying Israel is just fighting terrorism. Jaśkowiak also criticized Franciszek Sterczewski for joining the flotilla to Gaza, saying it looked more like a PR stunt than real help.

Despite the criticism, Jaśkowiak plans to visit Israel in November to learn about monitoring and anti-terror systems, saying this kind of cooperation helps keep Poland safe.

Switching gears to new policies. On Thursday, the 9th, the Sejm passed a law letting the president ratify a deal with the International Criminal Court or ICC, allowing Poland to hold people sentenced by the ICC regardless of their nationality or residence.

Back in two thousand four, Poland said it would take only Polish ICC convicts, but in January twenty twenty-four it opened up to all nationalities and signed the official deal on the 3rd of December, which now needs the president’s ratification.

The ICC prosecutes the worst crimes, like genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. So far, the ICC has agreements with fifteen countries, and it’s looking to strike deals with more.

This deal puts Poland on the map in international justice and lets the country decide how foreign convicts serve time.

Meanwhile in politics, on Monday, the 13th, Kacper Płażyński and Dorota Arciszewska-Mielewczyk, Law and Justice MPs, submitted a request to Poland’s Supreme Audit Office to investigate the Port of Gdynia, a city in northern Poland, after Stena Line, a Swedish ferry company, won the September tender for the ferry terminal contract instead of a Polish consortium.

They said that the port rejected the Polish bid based on assumptions, not facts, which could cost the port money in the coming years.

The MPs also criticized the process, saying that the expert report that backed the decision was mostly guesswork and not properly approved.

Next up, updates on security. On Tuesday, the 14th, Cezary Tomczyk, the Deputy Defense Minister, announced at the Forum for Armed Forces Innovation in Warsaw that the military will soon set up a special unit to test new equipment, including gear from Polish companies. He said that it’s difficult for local firms to sell military equipment abroad because Poland’s system is too complicated and bureaucratic.

The ministry is now working on legal and system changes, like a law on strategic investments to simplify project approvals.

Tomczyk also said that Poland is putting nearly 200 billion złoty, about fifty-four billion dollars, into defense, plus EU funds. He added that the military must speed up research and development, and said that similar projects should now take only a few years, especially with lessons from the war in Ukraine.

On that note about the military, on Friday, the 10th, President Nawrocki attended the Arraiolos Group summit in Estonia, where he met with leaders from EU countries to discuss security in the region and the use of AI in civilian and military contexts.

He also had one-on-one talks with Alar Karis, the Estonian President, and other government officials to strengthen cooperation on security.

This follows similar meetings he had in Lithuania last month with its president and prime minister.

Nawrocki plans to visit Latvia later this year to keep talking with Baltic leaders about regional safety and defense.

Also on Friday, the 10th, Radosław Sikorski, Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, visited Lviv in western Ukraine. He laid flowers at a building in the village of Lapaivka, in the west, destroyed in a recent Russian air strike, to honor the victims of the attack.

He also met with Ukraine’s foreign minister to talk about technological cooperation to strengthen security, especially in anti-drone defense.

Sikorski gave a lecture at Ivan Franko National University in Lviv, where he received an honorary doctorate. In his speech, he warned about the dangers of rising nationalism, saying Europe should choose peace over old divisions. He also said that Putin’s invasion backfired, since it helped NATO grow and pushed defense spending higher across Europe.

Speaking of Sikorski, on Monday, the 13th, he met with David van Wee, the Dutch Foreign Minister, in Warsaw during the 34th Utrecht Conference, an annual forum for bilateral talks between Poland and the Netherlands.

They talked about keeping Europe safe, supporting Ukraine against Russian aggression, making sure the sanctions on Russia stay strong, and staying united in the face of threats. They also touched on illegal migration, regional cooperation, and how the two countries can keep working closely on both security and diplomatic issues.

Van Weel thanked Sikorski for Poland’s quick move in stopping Russian drones over its airspace in September, showing that Poland is taking Russian threats seriously and doing its part for Europe’s security.

In more updates, on Tuesday, the 14th, Adam Szłapka, the government spokesman, said that the government approved a plan to raise alcohol taxes more than initially planned for twenty twenty-six and twenty twenty-seven.

Tax increases will jump from five percent to fifteen percent in twenty twenty-six and another ten percent in twenty twenty-seven. This will increase beer bottle prices by about sixteen groszy (about four US cents), and a vodka bottle will cost around three złoty (almost one dollar) more.

These changes will kick in on the 1st of January, twenty twenty-six.

And to wrap up this edition, on Wednesday the 15th, a committee in Poland’s Sejm, the lower house of Parliament, approved a plan to close all fur farms by the end of twenty thirty-three, giving farmers cash payouts and workers a year’s severance.

Jarosław Rzepa from the Polish People’s Party proposed and got approval to move the deadline from twenty twenty-nine to twenty thirty-three, giving farmers more time to shut down.

The government will calculate farmers’ compensation based on their average income from twenty twenty–twenty twenty-four, rewarding those who close sooner with higher payments. Farmers closing by the 1st of January, twenty twenty-seven will get twenty-five percent of that average. For each year that passes, they will lose five percent, with those shutting down in twenty thirty-one getting only five percent.

Employers must pay workers twelve months’ severance, which the Social Insurance Institution will reimburse.

The Sejm will now hold a second reading of the bill.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

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