A number of organizations are applying for funding from an EU competition under the European Funds for Social Development (FERS), which will be distributed by the Prime Minister’s Chancellery. Projects submitted by groups linked to the current ruling camp have been advanced to the next stage of substantive evaluation, including the Association of Polish Judges Iustitia and climate activists whose head is a former chief adviser to Donald Tusk. The Committee for the Defense of Democracy (KOD) also received a positive recommendation with a project concerning “electoral oversight” – Niezalezna reported. A total of 21 million PLN is available.
The Prime Minister’s Chancellery is the intermediary institution for the FERS 2021-2027 program, whose aim is “support for NGOs in the area of accessibility and social inclusion”. The competition is titled: “Strengthening the impact of NGOs from key sectors on public policies”. The Chancellery of the Prime Minister is responsible, among other things, for distributing the funds. The list includes organizations from circles associated with the current authorities, which are applying for funds in one of the seven sectors indicated in the competition.
“Citizen electoral oversight”, judges, and Civic Coalition cities
The project submitted by KOD, “Citizen Community of Electoral Oversight”, from the sector “Strengthening democracy, the rule of law, and human rights”, received a positive evaluation and was sent to the next stage of substantive assessment.
As stated on KOD’s website, the organization is looking for people who want to become observers in electoral commissions, as well as those who will collect and transmit voting results from individual polling stations to the Citizen Electoral Oversight initiative. KOD also plans to train candidates for members of electoral commissions and election observers.
From the same sector, a positive recommendation was also received by a project partnered with the Association of Polish Judges Iustitia. A favorable evaluation was given to the project “Resilient Society – a Community Stronger Than Crisis”, whose partner is the Union of Polish Metropolises named after Paweł Adamowicz, where leading local government politicians associated with Civic Coalition (KO) are in power, including Rafał Trzaskowski, Tadeusz Truskolaski, Aleksandra Dulkiewicz, Hanna Zdanowska, and Jacek Jaśkowiak. They are seeking funding from the competition sector “Building social resilience”.
A man from Tusk’s circle
The project of the Climate&Strategy Foundation also advanced to the next stage. It concerns, among other things, the fight against so-called climate disinformation. This falls under the sector “Counteracting and adapting to climate change”. A board member and co-founder of the foundation is Łukasz Broniewski, who in 2007-2011 was the chief adviser to Prime Minister Donald Tusk, and in 2011-2014 served as head of his political cabinet. In 2014-2019, he was head of Tusk’s office when Tusk served as President of the European Council.
He is currently considered one of the most influential people in Gdańsk. Since 2024, he has been a member of the supervisory board of Gdańskie Wody. In 2023-2025, he was a member of the supervisory board of the Pomeranian Development Agency, and he is also a shareholder in the Gdański Fund, a company engaged in property leasing and management.
German support
The Climate&Strategy Foundation promotes so-called decarbonization and deals, among other things, with calculating the carbon footprint of companies, cities, products, services, and events. Partners of Climate&Strategy include the German Allianz Foundation and the European Climate Foundation (ECF), which is supported, among others, by the German Bosch Foundation. The activities of the ECF were described in Gazeta Polska by Grzegorz Wierzchołowski. Until 2018, the chairman of the ECF supervisory board was former German deputy finance minister Caio Koch-Weser, who secured funds for Russia for the construction of Nord Stream (he approved German state guarantees for a Deutsche Bank loan for Gazprom) and later served as vice president of Deutsche Bank.
21 million PLN
Seven projects are planned to be funded, one from each of the designated sectors: support and integration of migrants and refugees; active ageing and development of long-term care; strengthening the mental health of children and youth; combating poverty and support for people experiencing homelessness; building social resilience; counteracting and adapting to climate change; strengthening democracy, the rule of law, and human rights.
A total of 21 million PLN has been allocated for the competition, and a single grant may amount to up to 3 million PLN.