The Lawyers for Poland Association is continuing its legal battle over the classified SAFE agreement. After the Chancellery of the Prime Minister refused to disclose the document, the organization filed a complaint with the Voivodeship Administrative Court in Warsaw, accusing the government of violating the principle of transparency in public finances. In the published complaint, the association argues that Polish citizens still do not know the basic terms of the state’s multi-billion-zloty financial commitment.
Request for the SAFE Agreement
On May 9, the Lawyers for Poland Association, represented by its President of the Management Board, Judge Łukasz Piebiak, submitted a request to the Chancellery of the Prime Minister under Poland’s public access to information law. The organization sought the complete SAFE agreement, including all annexes and every language version.
The Prime Minister’s Office refused to release the agreement concerning the EU loan, citing the protection of classified information and banking secrecy. The association strongly criticized the decision, calling it “an absolute scandal.”
Lawyers for Poland Takes the Case to Court
On Monday, the Lawyers for Poland Association announced its next legal step – filing a complaint with the Voivodeship Administrative Court in Warsaw against the decision of the Head of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister refusing to disclose the contents of the “Poland SAFE” agreement.
In a post published on social media, the organization stated:
“We are publishing extensive excerpts from our complaint to the administrative court challenging the refusal by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, and Finance Minister Andrzej Domański to provide public information in the form of the text of the #SAFE agreement.”
The association also announced that attorney Krzysztof Wąsowski filed the complaint on its behalf.
“Poles Do Not Know Who Signed the Agreement”
In its statement, the Lawyers for Poland Association listed what it considers to be numerous unresolved issues surrounding the SAFE program.
“Poles do not know who signed the #SAFE agreement, and Donald Tusk’s reliance on banking secrecy provides grounds to conclude that the lender is not the European Union but foreign banks.”
The organization also argues that the public has not been informed about the key financial terms of the obligation.
“The value of the debt, its interest rate, and additional costs remain unknown.”
According to the association, neither the currency of the obligation nor the beneficiaries of the funds have been disclosed.
Alleged Violation of Public Finance Transparency
In the complaint, the association’s legal representative argues that refusing access to the document violates the principle of transparency in public finances.
“The conditions governing the distribution of public funds for public purposes are subject to transparency, and banking secrecy cannot serve as a universal shield protecting state authorities from questions concerning the fundamental financial parameters of multi-billion public liabilities.”
The complaint further emphasizes that the request did not concern information typically protected by banking secrecy.
“The subject of the request was not a private corporate bank account or information covered by standard banking confidentiality, but the complete ‘Poland SAFE’ agreement signed between the Republic of Poland and the European Union or one of its agencies.”
“The Authority Completely Ignored the Principle of Transparency”
The association’s legal representative also accuses the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of violating Poland’s Public Finance Act.
“The authority completely ignored the fundamental principle of transparency in public finances set out in Article 33(1) of the Public Finance Act.”
The complaint concludes that citizens have the right to know the essential terms under which the state incurs debt.
“Citizens have the right to know the amounts and the basic conditions under which the state is taking on debt, the timeframe of the financing, the principal obligations of the parties, as well as the purpose and mechanism for spending funds under the ‘Armed Poland’ program.”