What goes on in Poland on the 20th of July
Solidarity’s warnings and ministry’s calmness
The regulations included in the amendment to the act on monitoring and controlling the quality of fuels may apply to businessmen and such institutions as schools or hospitals that use fossil fuels – believe representatives of the Solidarity trade union for mining.
The Ministry of the Environment commented on the concerns voiced by the trade union. According to the assumptions adopted by the Ministry of Energy, the amendment to the act on monitoring and controlling fuel quality, which is now being processed, applies only to solid fuels, which are not sold to households and to combustion plants whose rated thermal input is lower than 1 MW.
„The points made by the Ministry of the Environment about the act therefore apply to solid fuels used in small combustion installations in the household sector, not in industrial installations, which are allowed to use lower-quality coal because they are equipped with suitable appliances that reduce emissions,” the ministry ensured.
Poland is not at risk of losing funds
Three EU officials with whom the Politico portal talked clearly rejected all suggestions that Poland was at risk of using EU funds, whether today or in the future budget perspective, because of the government’s reform of the Polish judiciary.
Politico wrote about the parliamentary debate which was, as the portal claims, „the latest attempt to take control of the country’s judiciary.”
Politico’s sources at the European Commission and outside it are saying that the EC was angry, but powerless and would not propose any concrete actions at its Wednesday meeting.
However, according to the portal, the Polish President Andrzej Duda may come to the relief of the EC. „The backlash inside and outside Poland has been enough to prompt Polish President Andrzej Duda to buck his political patron Jarosław Kaczyński and make counter-proposals to the government effort to bring the judiciary under its control.”
Report on the implementation of the 2016 budget at the Sejm
The Sejm opened a debate on the report by the Commission for Public Finances on the implementation of the 2016 state budget. The Commission recommended that the report be adopted and the Council of Ministers be granted a discharge.
The Commission for Public Finances reviewed the report together with an analysis prepared by the Supreme Audit Office as well as the motions by Sejm commissions and moved for adopting the report and granting the Council of Ministers a discharge in the form of a resolution. The Supreme Audit Office’s report included a positive opinion on granting the discharge.
Capacity market delayed
The Sejm Commission for Energy and State Treasury was supposed to attend to the government’s project of the act on the capacity market. However, the item was removed from the schedule and the MPs will look into the matter at a different date. The capacity market will introduce a fee for capacity availability in the system. This is an additional charge to the existing fee for using electricity. The goal is to encourage energy companies to increase their capacity.
The Tuesday schedule only included amendments put forward during the second reading of the act on amending the act on renewable energy sources.