Free tap water in a gastro? Poles are again tougher than the EU

If the provision in the Waste and Packaging Waste Act is maintained, from August 12, 2026, Polish restaurateurs will have to serve their guests up to half a liter of water per person free of charge. Just a year ago – in the previous version of the project – the decision was supposed to be up to the restaurateurs and to be voluntary.

Now water is to be made available at the customer’s table at the customer’s request, “in reusable or refillable vessels, in the amount of half a liter of water per person.” Free. This is a model example of gold-plating.

However, half a liter of free water is the officials’ idea

The matter will necessarily apply not only to restaurants and cafes, but also to canteens, bars and all places where you can eat and drink in premises with seating.

According to praw.pl, MPs failed to include this issue in the Act on collective water supply and collective sewage disposal, so activists took matters into their own hands.

The Parliamentary Committee on Petitions shared their arguments contained in one of the petitions and sent the activists’ demands to three ministries, including the Ministry of Climate and Environment (MKiŚ). Partially free tap water convinced the officials – they went further in drafting the regulations than the authors of the petition.

The hidden function of gold-plating in Poland

Activists wanted to be obliged to ensure the availability of drinking tap water for customers at a fixed price, even slightly higher than the one resulting directly from the water fee tariff. The main argument of the petition authors is health – if water was free or for a symbolic fee, customers of catering establishments would be less likely to drink sugar-containing drinks. Cheap tap water in carafes on tables would also mean less plastic packaging.

In the current version of the bill, each customer is to receive half a liter of tap water for free.

Experts of the deregulatory initiative “CheckMY” in 2025 described 100 cases of broadly understood “gold-plating”, i.e. overregulation in Polish law. – Implementation of EU law on a one-to-one basis – i.e. only and exactly what is in the directives – is not a whim, but an obligation of the Polish legislator. In some EU countries – such as the Netherlands – directives are simply translated into the national language and implemented – Rafał Brzoska explained publicly – This strange Polish practice of adding everything possible to Polish acts introducing EU law is unacceptable and should end once and for all.

Conclusion from the report of the Civic Development Forum “Gold-plating. How is it done in Poland?”: “Gold-plating remains a convenient political tool that allows for transferring responsibility for unpopular regulations to the European Union.”