The Prime Minister’s Office has refused to disclose the contents of the agreement concerning the EU’s SAFE instrument to the Lawyers for Poland Association (Stowarzyszenie Prawnicy dla Polski). The reason given was the protection of classified information and banking secrecy. The association strongly criticized the decision, calling it “an absolute scandal.”
The case concerns a request submitted on May 9 by the Lawyers for Poland Association, represented by its Management Board President, Judge Łukasz Piebiak. The organization asked the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, under Poland’s public access to information laws, to provide the complete agreement, including all annexes and every language version.
The request concerns the EU SAFE loan agreement.
Request denied in full
The response was signed by Jan Grabiec, Minister, Member of the Council of Ministers, and Head of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister. In a decision issued on June 29, 2026, the office refused to disclose the requested public information in its entirety, citing the protection of classified information and banking secrecy.
In its reasoning, the authority acknowledged that, in principle, the conditions set out in the Act on Access to Public Information had been met – the requested material constitutes public information, and the Head of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister is the authority responsible for providing it unless statutory grounds exist for restricting access. However, the authority stated that although it possesses the requested information, the source material is protected “for the aforementioned reasons.”
“Belarusian standards”
The decision prompted a sharp response from the association, which commented on the matter on social media. “An absolute scandal. Compared to this, Belarusian standards look like Athenian democracy,” the organization’s representatives wrote while announcing that they had been denied access to the text of the SAFE agreement.
In its post, the association accused the government of burdening Poles with debt “for several generations,” while keeping the agreement’s key provisions secret. According to the organization, these include the total amount of the obligation, the currency, the interest rate, the rules governing the disbursement of tranches, and the identity of the beneficiaries.
The organization also directed a series of questions at the government. “What is there in this contract that made the authorities conclude it in violation of the Constitution, ignoring the President’s veto, and now refuse to let the Sovereign know what was purchased, at what price, and from whom?” the statement read, referring to President Karol Nawrocki’s opposition to the agreement.