Tusk versus Nawrocki. This is how the government wants to circumvent a possible veto

Karol Nawrocki has not yet made a decision on the future of the SAFE Act. The EU program assumes that Poland would receive as much as EUR 43.7 billion in preferential loans from the European Investment Bank to support the defense industry.

The storm around the SAFE program. What will Karol Nawrocki do?

PiS politicians strongly protest against the adoption of the actwho are trying to argue that “this is a threat to Polish sovereignty and a step under German thumb, which will weaken our relations with the USA.”

Criticism of SAFE also dominated the last meeting of the National Security Council. Karol Nawrocki stated, among others: that the largest Western European arms companies will benefit most from the program, and not the developing Polish defense industry.

In turn, Sławomir Cenckiewicz stated that “he would like to establish a steering committee in which the absorption of credit funds would be under a pluralized management, where a representative of the president would sit.” The head of the National Security Bureau added that the act should include a provision that 89 percent funds from the SAFE loan went to the Polish arms industry.

In response to these ideas, Paweł Zalewski, Deputy Minister of National Defense, categorically replied that “the requested powers do not fall within the competence of the head of state, and granting them would go far beyond the constitutional framework.”

Donald Tusk has a plan. This is how he wants to circumvent a possible veto

Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka, government plenipotentiary for SAFE, admitted that the government has a plan to circumvent a possible presidential veto. The Council of Ministers could conclude an agreement with the European Commission – this is not the subject of the act.

However, the politician admitted that without the provisions of the Act, it would be difficult to use the full potential of the loan, and beneficiaries from outside the defense sector may be excluded from the program. She added that it would be very difficult to maintain the part of SAFE funding that would support the police, Border Guard, State Protection Service and infrastructure projects.