POLAND: New National E-Invoicing System & more – 5th Feb 2026

Witam from BA! This is the Rorshok Poland Update from the 5th of February twenty twenty-six. A quick summary of what's going down in Poland.

Let’s kick things off with a major change for all businesses in the country. On the night from Saturday, the 31st, to Sunday, the 1st, Poland’s Finance Ministry launched the National e-Invoicing System. By Monday, the 2nd, the system handled eight times more traffic than on the launch night, which slowed it down.

The ministry said the login issues were temporary, and that the system had already processed 720,000 invoices and almost two million logins, remaining stable and secure.

Right now, the e-Invoicing system covers only companies with sales over 200 million złoty, about fifty‑six million dollars in twenty twenty-four, about 4,200 firms. Starting the 1st of February, twenty twenty-six, all businesses will receive invoices through it. The next phase will begin on the 1st of April, including most self-employed and medium-sized companies, while the smallest firms will join in January twenty twenty-seven.

To know more, check out the link in the show notes.

On Saturday, the 31st, party members elected Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, the Minister of Funds and Regional Policy, as leader of Poland twenty fifty, the smaller party in the ruling coalition. She narrowly defeated Paulina Hennig-Kloska, the Climate Minister, winning 350 votes to Hennig-Kloska’s 309.

Szymon Hołownia, the party’s current leader and parliament speaker, told both candidates to work together, while ideas for co-leaders or redoing the election with new candidates didn’t get enough support.

Poland twenty fifty holds thirty-one seats in parliament, making it the third-biggest party in the coalition.

Switching gears to foreign affairs, on Tuesday, the 3rd, PM Donald Tusk said the government plans to investigate possible Polish connections in the case of Jeffrey Epstein, the late American sex offender, and whether Russia was involved.

So far, Epstein’s released files only briefly mention Polish models, but that has drawn media attention. Tusk said some experts think Epstein’s actions could have been part of a Russian operation targeting Western elites, mainly in the US.

He added that this is a serious national security issue for Poland, as Russia might hold compromising material on influential figures.

Tusk also said that Poland will push for an international investigation, and the justice minister, attorney general, and intelligence coordinator have already set up an analytical team that could start a formal investigation soon.

Speaking of the US, on Monday, the 2nd, Włodzimierz Czarzasty, the Marshal of the Sejm, the lower house of parliament, announced that he will not support a Nobel Peace Prize nomination for Donald Trump, saying that the US president uses force, which destabilizes international organizations and weakens international law.

He criticized the US for setting up new projects like the Peace Council, which is meant to promote peace, instead of supporting existing international organizations.

He said the US uses its power to get what it wants and undermines groups like the EU, the UN, and the World Health Organization by ignoring their rules. He said these actions show why Trump does not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize.

Next up, on Friday, the 30th, the Ministry of National Defense signed a four billion dollar contract for a new anti-drone system called San, with Polish defense companies handling most of the work. The system will serve all branches of the military, detect and neutralize hostile drones using both direct attacks and electronic countermeasures, while keeping operational costs low.

The government fast-tracked the project after Russian drones entered Polish airspace in September, last year. San will join Poland’s layered air defense network alongside Patriot, Narew, and Pilica systems.

Officials expect the program to cost around fifteen billion złoty, (four billion dollars) and finish within two years.

On Wednesday, the 4th, prosecutors charged a Ministry of Defence employee with spying for a foreign intelligence service, possibly Russia or Belarus. The sixty-year-old man, who has worked over thirty years in the Department of Strategy and Defence Planning, faces eight years to life in prison if convicted.

Officials said he actively took part in espionage and is currently giving a statement.

Investigators monitored him for months and collected strong evidence. They searched his office and home and seized phones, computers, and storage devices.

Over to some business news, on Monday, the 2nd, the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection fined Orange Polska, a major telecommunications company, over thirty-four million złoty, around nine million dollars, for changing contract terms on their own and illegally charging five złoty, about one dollars and fifty US cents, to keep prepaid numbers active if people didn’t use their phones for thirty days.

Customers had no idea about these fees, as they weren’t on starter packs or the company’s website. Orange charged them from May twenty twenty-two to January twenty twenty-four, even for people with extended validity plans, which meant some got charged twice.

The Office called these contract rules illegal and said they go against the whole idea of prepaid plans, which should let people keep their numbers without extra costs. The decision isn’t final yet, and Orange can appeal in court.

Meanwhile, on Monday, the 2nd, Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś said he hopes the Bishops’ Conference in March will set up a national commission of independent experts to investigate sexual abuse in the Church. If the conference doesn’t act, he plans to create a diocesan-level commission.

The commission would investigate cases, give victims a voice, and provide support, especially when the accused is deceased. This follows allegations against the late Bishop Jan Szkodoń, who died in August twenty twenty-five.

The archdiocese said that authorities cannot open legal investigations against someone who has died, making the commission crucial to thoroughly examine cases and support victims. They also encouraged anyone with information on sexual abuse in the Church to reach out to the metropolitan’s delegates for minors and vulnerable people.

Following that, on Tuesday, the 3rd, Gliwice, in southern Poland, announced it will upgrade and expand its smart traffic system including video detection at more than seventy intersections that spots people and bikes, touchless buttons and sound signals for those with disabilities, bus priority at lights, and smarter parking info in the city center so no one wastes time hunting for a spot by the end of twenty twenty-six.

Work will start as soon as the contract is signed in February.

In the world of sports, on Tuesday, the 3rd, the Polish Football Association announced it was cutting ties with the fan group To My Polacy or It's us, Poles. The group had organized cheering at national team games but caused dangerous incidents during the World Cup qualifier against the Netherlands on the 14th of November, twenty twenty-five, throwing flares onto the pitch and forcing the referee to stop the match.

The problems started after the group’s planned fan display got banned, which they complained about online. Because of this, the upcoming playoff against Albania was almost at risk, and FIFA gave the Polish Football Association a 50,000 dollars fine.

The Association said that this kind of behavior is totally unacceptable and that fans should give support that brings people together instead of putting anyone in danger.

In weather updates, on Monday, the 2nd, more than 330 schools across Poland cancelled classes because of the extreme cold. In many places, temperatures dropped to around minus fifteen degrees celsius, which is about five degrees Fahrenheit.

Some schools held lessons online, while others stayed closed on Tuesday as the freezing weather continued. Headteachers can cancel classes when it stays that cold for two days in a row or when classrooms don’t warm up above eighteen degrees Celsius, around sixty-four degrees Fahrenheit.

To wrap up, on Wednesday, the 4th, Mateusz Perowicz, an expert on economic patriotism at the Jagiellonian Club Analysis Center, wrote on Jagiellonian Club that Poland’s discussion about farming has become too negative, focusing too much on fears over imports from Ukraine and the South American trade bloc Mercosur.

He said Polish farmers work hard to meet EU standards, but most of their profits end up with middlemen and big foreign stores, leaving them struggling financially.

Perowicz also noted that young people aren’t taking over family farms because it’s hard to make a living. He suggested that cooperatives could help strengthen farmers and the food supply chain. He added that food security is just as crucial to national sovereignty as energy, transport, or defense, and that government action is needed to protect it.

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

But wait, we have an important thing to tell you. We've decided to bring the Rorshok Poland Update to an end. We've loved doing it and it has been going since late twenty twenty-two. Originally, we'd sort of hoped that the listeners could connect and a small community might form, but one way or another, we didn't know how to do that, and it hasn't really happened. And putting them out every week is lots of work and not cheap....so we're just going to stop and focus on the other community building things Rorshok is doing. You can check out our projects on our website. Thank you for listening all these years. We'd love to hear from you, so if you’ve got any questions or ideas, send us an email at info@rorshok.com.

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