Polish national recovery plan revision to be completed by mid-Dec; further payment requests before New Year
Following approval by the European Commission, the revision of Poland's National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Polish: KPO), will be completed by the Council of the European Union by mid-December, so that Warsaw can submit further payment requests by the end of 2025, development funds and regional policy minister Katarzyna Pelczynska-Nalecz told PAP Biznes in the lower chamber of parliament, the Sejm. She added that the last payment requests from KPO - the eighth and ninth - will be submitted in 2026.
"Now there is a normal procedure in the Council [of the EU - MI ed.], which all revisions go through, including ours. It will be completed by mid-December so that we can submit the next 6th and 7th payment requests by the end of this year," Pelczynska-Nalecz told PAP Biznes.
She specified that these applications will probably be submitted in Brussels the day before Christmas Eve.
"But it may turn out that it will be between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, because it's a race against time," the minister added.
She explained that there are two windows in the year for submitting payment applications for EU funds under the national recovery plan KPO.
"That is why we are submitting two each time - to make sure we fit in, because next year, we will be submitting the 8th and, finally, the 9th request separately. And that will be it," Pelczynska-Nalecz said.
When asked about the amount of the 6th and 7th payment requests, she emphasised that it is not yet known.
"We know that on December 1, we will receive PLN 26 billion [EUR 6.1 bln from the 4th and 5th payment requests - MI ed.], but we do not know how much we will request in the next one, because it depends on the investments made, as this is refinancing and the investments are currently underway, so we are pushing ahead with the investments and once we know exactly how much, we will submit the request," the minister said.
On Thursday, the European Commission approved the changes proposed by Poland in the final revision of the national recovery plan KPO. This assessment still has to be confirmed by the Council of the EU. Following the changes proposed by Warsaw, the total amount of EU funds available under KPO for Poland will decrease from EUR 59.8 billion to EUR 54.7 billion. This follows a reduction in the loan component of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan from EUR 34.5 billion to EUR 29.4 billion.
The EC had previously approved the disbursement of the fourth and fifth tranches of EU fund to Poland within the national recovery plan, amounting to approximately PLN 26 billion (EUR 6.1 bln).
At the end of October, Poland's deputy development funds minister Jan Szyszko told PAP Biznes that Poland still has only three transfers from the national recovery plan KPO ahead of it, with a total value exceeding PLN 100 billion (EUR 24 bln).
To date, Poland has received PLN 67 billion (EUR 16 bln) of EU funds under KPO: PLN 27 billion (EUR 6.4 bln) was transferred to Poland in April 2024, and PLN 40 billion (EUR 9.4 bln) in December 2024.
Poland has initiated the final revision of KPO at the end of September.
The original plan assumed the allocation of EUR 59.8 billion to Poland, including EUR 25.27 billion in grants and EUR 34.54 billion in preferential loans.
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