“There will not be more equipment, only more expensive equipment. At the funding levels currently being discussed, Polish products will fail to attract sufficient interest across Europe, which creates yet another threat: we will become increasingly dependent on products manufactured outside Poland. This, in turn, will contribute to slowing down the development of our domestic defence industry,” warns Bartosz Kownacki, former Deputy Minister of National Defence and current Deputy Chairman of the Sejm National Defence Committee, commenting on today’s signing of the loan agreement under the SAFE programme.
Earlier this afternoon in Warsaw, a loan agreement under the SAFE programme was officially signed. The document was signed by European Commissioners Piotr Serafin (Budget) and Andrius Kubilius (Defence), alongside representatives of the Polish government – Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz and Finance Minister Andrzej Domański.
Under the SAFE programme, Poland is expected to receive approximately €43.7 billion in loans earmarked for defence purposes.
From the very beginning, the EU SAFE loan programme has raised significant concerns not only among political circles but also within the legal community.
“SAFE is yet another step towards making Poland’s security dependent on decisions made by EU officials. Poles have the right to decide for themselves about their own country and security,”
reads a statement published today on the official X account of the Law and Justice party (PiS).
“The Operation to Push the U.S. Out of Europe Has Begun”
“The SAFE agreement is highly disadvantageous for Poland. First and foremost, we will overpay for equipment. Romania’s case already demonstrates this; it has learned that under SAFE, it will pay 30 percent more for German-made armaments. The principle is simple: there will not be more equipment, only the same amount at a higher price,”
Bartosz Kownacki, PiS MP, former Deputy Defence Minister, and current Deputy Chairman of the Sejm National Defence Committee, told Niezalezna.pl.
MP Kownacki reminded that, under the regulation, EU member states can independently procure military equipment only within the SAFE framework until the end of May 2026. After that deadline, starting in June, purchases will have to be made jointly with other EU countries.
“Equipment procurement will have to be completed within a much shorter timeframe, and to a large extent, we will no longer be able to spend this money within the Polish defence industry. We will be looking for partners in Germany, France, and Italy, and that is where purchases will be made,”
he added.
“At the funding levels being discussed, Polish products will not attract sufficient interest across Europe, which creates another threat: we will become increasingly dependent on products from outside Poland. This, in turn, will slow down the development of our defence industry,”
he continued.
According to the politician, European policy, including the SAFE programme, is aimed at one thing: pushing the United States out of Europe’s defence sector.
“Meanwhile, the European arms industry is incapable of building its own strength by abandoning fast and efficient deliveries of top-quality U.S. equipment in favour of inferior weaponry and extended delivery times,”
he warned.
“In the event of war, the European defence industry, in its current state, would not be capable of producing the required amount of military equipment and weaponry necessary to sustain a full-scale conflict,” he added.
A similar view was expressed by MP Marek Jakubiak, a member of the Sejm National Defence Committee.
“Donald Tusk remains consistently submissive towards Germany, which explains why Poland rushed to sign the SAFE agreement as the first EU member state. He wants to present himself as the vanguard of Europe. But the real objective is different: to sever Europe’s defence cooperation with America, use EU structures for that purpose, and revive European industry, which in practice largely means German industry. That is the entire explanation,”
Jakubiak argued.
“I believe the government is aware of the constitutional limitations surrounding the SAFE agreement. That is why they divided the loan into dozens of separate contracts, so that later no one could accuse them of creating a single, combined state debt, but rather a series of small, individual agreements. In this way, the signatories are attempting to evade constitutional responsibility. I hope they will fail,” he added.
“Tusk will absorb the Polish portion of this loan into the state budget. In practice, this means that all arms purchases originally planned within the budget framework will instead be carried out through SAFE, while the funds that the Ministry of National Defence will no longer have to spend from its own budget will be redirected towards current expenditures. This is nothing more than Tusk-style creative accounting, just as we saw with the National Recovery Plan (KPO),” Jakubiak claimed.
The MP also agreed with the argument that weapon prices will rise dramatically.
“All the momentum behind SAFE will ultimately amount to nothing. Because when too much money is allocated to a single product, its price skyrockets. A single 155 mm artillery shell, instead of costing 14,000, will cost 40,000. And we will still buy the same quantity,”
he concluded.