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What goes in Poland on 4th of July
Three Seas Initative in focus
President Andrzej Duda used Helmut Kohl’s memorial ceremony, which took place at the European Parliament, to hold a few meetings with European leaders. Andrzej Duda’s participation in the ceremony was noticed by web users because of a picture with Donald Tusk taken during the official welcoming.
The President’s spokesman, Krzysztof Łapiński informed that Andrzej Duda talked in Strasbourg with Lithuania’s President Dalia Grybauskaitė, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko, Austria’s President Alexander van der Bellen and Chancellor Angela Merkel.
According to the officials from the Polish President’s office, the discussion on the Weimar Triangle (cooperation forum between Germany, France and Poland, which was frozen after Poland broke the negotiations on purchasing France’s Caracal helicopters – e.d.) with Chancellor Merkel was the most important one. The president also talked with the other leaders about the so-called Three Seas Initiative, whose participants will meet at a summit in Warsaw this week.
Complaint to the prime minister
Gas importers are drafting a complaint to Vice-Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. They are against the amendment of the Act on oil and gas reserves, which was not consulted with gas importers who fear it might have a negative impact on the market. HEG wrote an open letter to the Vice-Minister and warned against legal consequences once the European Commission and the Energy Regulatory Office get involved.
On behalf of hundreds of businessmen and thousands of employees of the sector, HEG asked Morawiecki to quickly react to the way the legislative process is conducted by the Sejm’s Commission on Energy and State Treasury. So far the Commission has not presented any documents to the representatives of the sector and the Energy Regulatory Office despite the upcoming vote in the Sejm.
The importer believes that the government’s propositions on maintaining reserves discriminate against smaller entities because the costs of gas storage are very high and unprofitable for independent companies. In result the legal changes will cause an increase in gas prices by 5 to 8%.
Closing gaps with taxes
“The government wants to tax gas to support local governments in fixing 6000 km of roads annually. The plan will succeed provided that the price increase will not kill the economic growth,” wrote Wojciech Jakóbik, editor in chief of Biznesalert.pl
Roads maintained by local governments in Poland are often in bad shape and the local authorities remain underfunded. This is why applications are rejected and local authorities wait for money from the government. The proposed Act on the Local Roads Fund increases the gas price by 25 grosz per liter. The additional money will go to the National Roads Fund and the rest to the Local Roads Fund.
Subsidizing infrastructural investments from the taxpayer’s pocket might have to be necessary. The growing conservatism of EU spending means the search for new driving forces behind strategic investments is on. Some, e.g. the Jagiellonian Club, are hoping for unspecified investments from China, Others, like Polish electric energy companies, are still putting their money on Brussels and new investment tools, such as the Modernization Fund, which is part of the reformed emissions trading system.
Experts against Sunday shopping ban
A restrictive intervention into markets, which determine so much, e.g. in the trade sector, is not a positive decision, say experts of the sector.
The inner circulation of goods is a key process in our economy. This is a blow against basic resources – working time and exposure of the products to the client on a devilishly competitive market, which has all possible trade formats, wants to sell as often and as much as possible; a market, which works on very low margins. This will impact various economic factors – it stops the process of generating and attracting investments, impacts the job market and competition. The ban on Sunday shopping will discriminate against the sector.
“The biggest market participants will feel their business is threatened,” said Andrzej Maria Feliński, trade market expert.
