Poland's recovery plan revision to be completed in June, says dev. funds minister
If the indicators for Poland are reduced, all the more reason for the need for new financial fuel and Poland's national recovery plan KPO is the solution, the development funds and regional policy minister Katarzyna Pelczynska-Nalecz told PAP Biznes when asked about the EC's forecasts. She added that the process of revising the KPO had been somewhat prolonged by the reconciliation of the defence fund and that the KPO revision would be completed next month.
"In my opinion, regardless of the forecasts, investing [the EU funds under] KPO in a good way is absolutely desirable and good for the development of the Polish economy, because the investment process itself causes jobs to be launched and the economy to move forward, and this can be seen in this investment boom for the rest, that it spurs Polish development," minister Pelczynska-Nalecz said, when asked about Monday's revision of Poland's GDP growth forecasts by the EC.
"If the indicators for Poland are reduced, it is all the more reason why we need such new fuel today and the KPO is it," she added.
Asked whether there was no threat to the June deadline for the completion of the KPO revision, she replied that the revision would be completed next month.
"The review will be completed next month. What prolonged it a little bit was that we put into this revision very serious changes (...), that is, the creation of the Security and Defence Fund, and today we are at the stage of finalising the agreement on what exactly this fund is to look like, we are writing a Polish law that will implement this fund," she pointed out.
Poland's development funds minister added that this is the first such fund in the EU, so Poland is breaking through the 'unknown', and therefore, it is taking a while.
"But there is an agreement, and we know that this fund will definitely already be created," she stressed.
Pelczynska-Nalecz reiterated that a transfer from the 4th and 5th payment requests for EU funds within the national recovery plan KPO is expected to flow to Poland once the review is completed, during the holidays.
Asked about the amount of this transfer, she pointed out that it is not known how much it will be due to the castling of investments in the revision, but, as she pointed out, these are "smaller applications and smaller funds".
On Monday, the European Commission lowered its forecast for Poland's economic growth in 2025 to 3.3 percent from 3.6 percent assumed previously, and in 2026 - to 3.0 percent from 3.1 percent.
On Friday, Pelczynska-Nalecz reported that Poland had secured PLN 97 billion (EUR 22.67 bln) under KPO, both in the grant and loan parts. She added that her ministry wants to complete the revision of the national recovery plan in June and therefore expects another disbursement of funds in the summer.
Poland can receive a total of EUR 59.8 billion from the national recovery plan KPO, including EUR 25.27 billion in grants and EUR 34.54 billion in preferential loans.
jz/ ao/