What goes in Poland on 3rd of July.
Unity of the Big Four
„The most important task of the Hungarian presidency in the Visegrad Group will be to keep V4’s unity,” said Stanisław Karczewski, Speaker of the Polish Senate after a Friday meeting with László Kövér, the Speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly.
Karczewski, who is visiting Hungary until Thursday, told journalists that the talks mainly focused on Hungary taking over the presidency in the Group and its agenda.
„We also talked about the current issues, our cooperation, the cooperation between Hungary and China, between us and the United States. Additionally we discussed all current political issues, including the upcoming elections in Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic,” said the Senate Speaker.
Karczewski was asked which point on the Visegrad agenda the politicians considered the most important.
„The most important thing is that we keep the unity of all Visegrad states, Speaker Kövér will fight strongly for this. He thanked us a lot for the fact that he didn’t have to start from square one and that Poland has done a lot on this issue,” Karczewski said.
Trump in Poland
General Herbert McMaster, President Trump’s National Security Advisor, presented the schedule of Donald Trump’s next week visit to Europe. He called Poland a „European power.”
McMaster informed that President Trump „will travel first to Warsaw, Poland to meet that country’s leaders and speak to the Polish people. He will continue on to Hamburg, Germany for the G20 and for meetings with many world leaders.” He also stated that the visit had three objectives „to promote American prosperity, to protect American interests, and to provide American leadership.” Apart from that, the goal of the trip is to, among others, show the ties that connect the US with Europe, such as common values, „commitment to liberty and rule of law in particular”. This will happen during the meetings in Poland. McMaster also stated that the administration hoped to „to develop a common approach to Russia.”
President’s Trump advisor also revealed that the visit in Warsaw will start with a meeting with President Andrzej Duda, „the leader of a staunch NATO ally and of a nation that remains one of America’s closest friends.” After that the US leader will give a speech to „12 Central European, Baltic, and Western Balkan leaders at the Three Seas Conference.” It is said that the President will also talk about the LNG terminal in Świnoujście where a few weeks ago the first US LNG shipment was delivered. The US President will also have a meeting with the Croatian President, who is the Summit’s co-host.
Sanctions for corrupt taxpayers
The government decided to amend tax regulations and introduce sanctions to fight tax fraud. The newly adopted and extended legislation that penalizes tax avoidance, in practice means the return of strict penalties for tax offences.
The new changes will encompass not only dishonest businessmen, but also those who will commit unintended mistakes in their tax settlements.
The Ministry of Finance is fighting against a wave of offences and abuses and tightened the system of VAT collection. One can assume that the newly introduced penalties for tax offences will be used in case of a situation where the VAT due was underestimated, or where input VAT was overestimated.
EU opens market to Ukraine
EU states agreed to open their markets to products from Ukraine and lower tariffs on industrial goods. Ambassadors of EU Member States approved the initial understanding of EU governments and Members of the European Parliament. Before the agreement goes into force, it needs to be adopted by the European Parliament during a plenary session.
Facilitating the trade with Ukraine complements the free trade deal between Kiev and Brussels signed last year. The goal is to help the Ukrainian economy, which is struggling due to, among others, the conflict with Russia and the embargo on agricultural products.
During the negotiations Poland, even though it supported the opening of the market to Ukrainian products, wanted to secure the interests of producers who were afraid their situation would deteriorate after additional import quotas are introduced. Warsaw wanted to exclude wheat, corn and processed tomatoes from trade preferences.
Poland ranked sixth in the use of EU funds
„Poland was ranked sixth in the EU when it comes to the use of funds from Juncker’s Plan,” said Witold Słowik, Vice-Minister of Economic Development. The plan supports two major areas: large infrastructural investments and innovations and small- and medium-enterprises. Considering both areas, on 24 May, „Poland was ranked 6th in the EU when it comes to the use of funds from Juncker’s Plan.” Regarding infrastructure and innovations we were actually ranked 5th. The value of the approved projects was over EUR 4.5 billion. For Spain, which is ranked fourth, the figure was at EUR 8.03 billion.
„A little over a year ago, one internet portal wrote that when it comes to the Juncker Plan we were way behind. Only one major investment in Poland was approved. It was a powder milk factory. Today there are 18 projects like that, worth almost PLN 20 billion,” the minister said. He also added that in February 2016 the Ministry of Economic Development became the government’s center for coordination of Juncker’s Plan in Poland.