“The resolution shows that the government did not need this bill in the Sejm. It needed it solely to polarize society. To push the narrative that some people supposedly want security, while the rest are fools and blockheads,” Confederation MEP Anna Bryłka said on TV Republika. She also warned about the key deadline of May 30, after which the rules governing SAFE spending would change completely.
President Karol Nawrocki decided to veto the law implementing the EU’s SAFE defence loan programme. SAFE is an EU mechanism for financing European defence, from which Poland is expected to borrow around €44 billion.
According to Anna Bryłka, the absence of the law will not halt the implementation of the SAFE mechanism.
“The resolution shows that the government did not need this bill in the Sejm. It needed it solely to polarize society. To push the narrative that some people supposedly want security, while the rest are fools and blockheads,” she said on TV Republika.
The Confederation MEP said she was pleased that an intense public debate had finally emerged in Poland:
“Poles have seen that this is yet another massive EU debt. Poland will be repaying it for 45 years. Poland will also have to pay enormous interest.”
“SAFE was adopted by the Council of the European Union in May last year. Back then, the European Parliament challenged the regulation before the Court of Justice of the European Union, because the European Commission had used the wrong legal basis. We are still waiting for the ruling,” she recalled.
Asked whether taking out the loan would be legal, she replied:
“There will probably be experts and legal opinions claiming that it is legal. In my view, everything here has been illegal from start to finish. This is a major obligation. Any responsible government, before submitting such an application, would have come to the Sejm several months earlier. That is when we needed this debate.”
In Bryłka’s view, the greatest danger in the SAFE regulation lies in “eligibility requirements and the transfer of competences to the European Union in financial matters, namely borrowing on capital markets on behalf of member states by the European Commission, but also in the transfer of competences in defence policy.”
“It is the European Commission that assesses the application, it is the decision of the Council of the European Union that approves that application, it is the European Commission that decides on the disbursement, and it is the European Commission that decides what the money ultimately goes toward,” she listed.
Explaining the eligibility rules written into the regulation, she warned:
“The idea behind the SAFE regulation is to strengthen the European defence industry. It is obvious that some countries have stronger defence industries and others have weaker ones. Joint procurement may prove risky. At least two countries must agree on specific purchases. There is an exception for individual procurement, but the contract must be concluded by the end of May.”
“I understand that the Polish government intends to invest most of this money through individual procurement. We all know what negotiating contracts for such large and highly detailed orders looks like. In my view, it is impossible for us to conclude those contracts independently by the end of May. What if we fail to sign those contracts? After May 30, will we find a second country willing to make the same purchase with us from our defence industry? I have very serious doubts,” she concluded.