On Tuesday at the Presidential Palace, President Karol Nawrocki met, among others, with Prime Minister Donald Tusk to discuss the Sejf 0% program proposed by the head of state. The program is intended to serve as a favorable alternative to an EU loan.
Summarizing the talks, the Head of the Chancellery of the President, Zbigniew Bogucki, emphasized that “today we are able, essentially at no cost, hence the Polish Sejf 0%, through prudent management of the National Bank of Poland’s reserves, without depleting them, to generate around PLN 200 billion over the next four to five years and redirect these funds to the Polish Defense Investment Fund.”
Bogucki noted that the meeting took place in order “to present concrete solutions, economic and financial, but also legislative” related to the program.
“The Prime Minister demanded details; today he received those details, both in the legislative dimension, meaning the legal framework, and in the economic dimension. In short, today, a bill submitted by the President […] concerning the Polish Defense Investment Fund was introduced to the Sejm. Therefore, there can no longer be any talk that there are no details, that there is no legal framework, or that it is unclear what this is about,”
he said.
“In fact, the Sejm session begins today. The Prime Minister, as the leader of the parliamentary majority and the head of government, can ensure that this bill is brought before the Sejm for deliberation. The Senate will also meet next week, so in practice, it would be possible to adopt this good bill even before the President’s decision deadline. The President has not yet decided on the European SAFE instrument, but the proposed bill could already be processed. Of course, the President remains fully open to working on the bill, but to do so quickly and efficiently. Wherever corrections might be required, we are fully available,”
he said.
He emphasized that the main goal of the submitted bill is to establish the Polish Defense Investment Fund as “a fund that would manage resources generated through prudent management, but not depletion of the National Bank of Poland’s reserves, whether foreign currency reserves or gold reserves.”
“Let me remind you that the National Bank of Poland’s reserves amount to about €240 billion […] which is about 5.5 times the loan that the government of Donald Tusk would have Poland take out,”
he said.
“Today we are able, essentially at no cost, hence Sejf 0%, through prudent management of the National Bank of Poland’s reserves, without depleting them, to generate around PLN 200 billion over the next four to five years and redirect these funds to the Polish Defense Investment Fund. The aim is for this money to go to the Polish armed forces in the broadest sense, while also ensuring it does not go elsewhere. Regardless of who governs Poland, these funds should be secured, not to cover a budget deficit, not for any other spending, but strictly for defense expenditures,”
he stressed.
Speaking about the cost of the EU loan, he indicated that by 2027, the costs of the SAFE instrument would be roughly the same as the funds Poland would receive from it.
“So if we are talking about €43.7 billion, we would effectively have to repay roughly the same amount. In short, the servicing costs for this European SAFE instrument amount to PLN 180 billion. And this is something the government does not say, does not want to say, and behaves as if history ends today, in a week, or at most in 2027, because I understand that this is also meant to be an instrument of the government’s political policy,”
he said.