Poland will not have to adhere to budgetary constraints when it comes to aid it has offered to Ukraine and social support programmes in the aftermath of the Russia-Ukraine war, the finance ministry has told PAP.
Poland has accepted a record number of Ukrainian refugees and helped them find a new home in the country. Warsaw has also provided military and financial aid to Ukraine as the country is struggling to fight the Russian invasion.
Poland has also implemented a number of relief programmes as energy prices spiked and triggered a steep rise in inflation after Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
The European Commission has agreed for the additional spending not to come under the constraints of Poland’s spending stabilisation rule (SRW) in 2022, the ministry’s spokesman, Patrycja Dudek, told PAP on Saturday.
The categories of spending exempted from the rule include the support for entities affected by the energy crisis, provision of energy security, support for vulnerable members of society and military expenditure.
In 2021, Poland drafted the SRW for the 2022 budget based on the central bank’s inflation target of 2.5 per cent, but the geopolitical turmoil and the effects of the Covid crisis drove inflation up to nearly 18 per cent by October 2022, severely constraining the country’s capability to react dynamically to the changing situation.