POLAND: Financial Support from EU & more – 19th Dec 2024

Witam from BA! This is the Rorshok Poland Update from the 19th of December twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Poland.

Let’s kick off with foreign affairs updates. On Thursday, the 12th, a European Commission decided to give fifty-five million dollars of financial support to Poland to strengthen its borders with Russia and Belarus which use hybrid attacks to destabilize Europe with the illegal immigrant influx. The Commission also allowed Poland to take measures, like suspending asylum rights, that will strengthen the country's security.

Tomasz Siemoniak, the interior minister, said that the decision recognizes Poland for securing Europe from the Russian and Belarusian threats. The Polish government will finalize its new national migration policy next week.

The next day, Poland signed a deal with Spain’s Airbus Defence and Space company to modernize its transport aircraft fleet. The deal, worth 107 million dollars, included upgrades to operational systems, communications, and improvements on identification and self-defense systems. Next year, two planes will be modernized in Spain and fourteen in Poland as part of an eight-year plan.

Still on security, on Thursday, the 12th, Emmanuel Macron, the French President, visited Warsaw and met with Donald Tusk, the Prime Minister, to discuss the war in Ukraine and bilateral relations between Poland and France. Later in the day, Macron talked to President Duda about Poland's upcoming EU presidency, the European troop deployment in Ukraine, and the bilateral treaty between France and Poland.

Next spring in Nancy, France, both countries will sign a treaty to strengthen their economic and defense cooperation.

Speaking of Ukraine, on Tuesday, the 17th, Tusk met with Volodymyr Zelensky, the President of Ukraine, in Lviv city in western Ukraine. The politicians discussed the situation on the front lines of the war, the geopolitical situation, and Polish-Ukrainian relations. Tusk also announced the opening of a new road in early twenty twenty-five that will connect Piotrków Trybunalski, a city in central Poland, with Dorohusk, a Polish village at the border crossing into Ukraine. The new road will improve transportation between Poland and Ukraine for cars and trucks.

The state of national affairs appears to be tense. On Thursday, the 12th, the National Prosecutor’s Office issued a nationwide arrest warrant for Marcin Romanowski, the Deputy Justice Minister, who used his position to rig grant competitions for the benefit of his accomplices. He stole over twenty-five million dollars from the government and tried to steal thirteen million more. Romanowski is currently hiding, and he may face up to twenty-five years in prison for his crimes.

Earlier this year, the government lifted his immunity and soon after the Council of Europe approved his detention. Meanwhile, Sovereign Poland, Romanowski’s party, said that the investigation was politically motivated.

Also on Thursday, Bogdan Święczkowski, the recently appointed head of Poland's Constitutional Tribunal, said that he would like to discuss with the government officials from the legislative and executive branches how to improve court functions. However, Adam Bodnar, the justice minister, was skeptical about the proposal, saying that Święczkowski is politically aligned with the previous ruling party, Law and Justice, that appointed him as the head of the Internal Security Agency during its term.

Since twenty fifteen, the court has faced a lot of criticism for being too political under the rule of the previous administration. Law and Justice was involved in the selection of judges who later on were making decisions in favor of the party.

The media also struggles to be independent. On Monday, the 16th, the government decided to add two private TV channels, National Television, and Polsat, to a list of businesses that require governmental approval if any foreign company wants to buy them.

The US State Department criticized the decision, saying that Poland, as a European country, should keep the media independent from the government. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Tusk said that this measure would protect channels from hostile takeovers like Russia.

However, the real reason behind the new policy might be to prevent a Hungarian company tied to Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian Prime Minister, who shares political interests with the current government rival, the Law and Justice Party, from buying the channels.

In positive news, on Saturday, the 14th, President Duda signed a new law to extend maternity leave for parents of premature or sick newborns. Currently, in Poland the standard maternity leave lasts twenty weeks and paternity leave, two weeks. Parents of babies born before the twenty-eighth week of pregnancy or weighing less than one kilogram (or 2.2 pounds) will have fifteen more weeks. If a baby is sick or born before thirty-six weeks of pregnancy, the parents can take eight additional weeks. Either the mother or the father can take this additional leave, or they can share it between themselves.

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On Sunday, the 15th, Poland launched a new rail connection between Prague, the Czech capital, and Gdańsk, a port city in northern Poland. The route will pass through big cities in Poland, such as Wrocław in the southwest, Poznań, in the west-central region, and Bydgoszcz in north-central Poland, as well as smaller towns such as Kłodzko, in the southwest, and Leszno in west-central Poland. The route has three daytime trains and one night train. Even though the route from Gdańsk to Prague lasts nine hours, the train doesn’t have sleeping accommodations.

Next up, on Tuesday, the 17th, the Government Strategic Reserves Agency announced that it would sell 1,000 tons of frozen butter from its reserves to lower the rising butter prices. In twenty twenty-three, the price for one kilogram of butter was around six dollars, but currently, it ranges from ten to twelve dollars. The reasons for the price increase are businesses that buy butter in bulk at lower prices to create an impression of shortage in the market and then resell it at higher prices. The Government Strategic Reserves Agency will sell the butter from its reserves in an auction for seven dollars per kilogram.

Going to another supermarket aisle, Majonez Kielecki, a well-known Polish mayonnaise, is becoming more and more popular with a 220 percent sales increase over the past decade. The manufacturing company Together or Społem, operating since nineteen twenty, will invest fifteen million dollars to expand production to meet the consumers' needs starting in twenty twenty-five. Currently, due to the coming holidays, the high demand for Kielecki mayonnaise has caused temporary rationing in some shops.

In some cultural news, twenty-two performers from Białystok, a city in northeastern Poland, set a new national record of playing blues music nonstop for thirty-three hours straight. The performance started on Friday, the 13th, in the afternoon and ended on Sunday the 15th, in the morning. Marek Gąsiorowski, the organizer of the event, said that this performance was a contribution to a long-going blues tradition in the region.

The participants of the event donated money to Poles from the Niemen River Foundation, which helps Polish ethnic groups in Lithuania, Belarus, and Latvia.

Talking about holidays, on Wednesday the 25th of December, the country will celebrate Christmas. The celebrations usually begin on the 24th of December with Christmas Eve, or Wigilia, when there’s a traditional family dinner with twelve meatless dishes like pierogi, barszcz, and carp. The religious part of the nation usually shares wafer or opłatek, a thin, unleavened bread, and exchanges wishes. The tradition draws back to the Last Supper in the Bible, which symbolizes unity, love, and forgiveness. Later, families may attend the evening Mass.

On Thursday, the 12th, the national broadcaster Polish Radio hosted a pre-Christmas charity fundraiser and raised over 26,000 dollars to support sick and disabled children. Some Polish celebrities, artists, and sports stars donated some of their belongings for the auction.

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

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