Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki announced on March 12 that he would not sign into law the act that would bring Poland into the EU’s SAFE program to finance the country’s defense procurement through a 43.7 billion-euro loan. Donald Tusk then announced that his government would take out the EU loan anyway. The Prime Minister announced that the basis for his actions would be… a resolution of the Council of Ministers. There is not the slightest doubt that this will be a flagrant violation of the Polish Constitution.
The Eurocrats want to blackmail us again!
From the outset, President Nawrocki faced enormous pressure from Donald Tusk and his government. Politicians from the ruling coalition sought to convince Poles, through their propaganda outlets, that the EU loan meant “a strong, great, safe Poland” and that rejecting it was treason and harmful to the country.
Seeing that what is at stake is Poland’s sovereignty and the right to decide on the directions of development of the Polish Armed Forces, as early as January, we submitted to the President’s advisors our in-depth expert analysis on the SAFE program. In it, we showed how an EU loan could be used to blackmail Poles, who, before the upcoming elections, would be told that choosing a government that stands up for Polish sovereignty would mean suspending the disbursement of billions for Poland’s security. Today we know that our expert analysis was presented to the President in a memo at the time.
And it quickly became clear that we were right. The European Commission is already warning of issues with disbursing funds from the SAFE program to Hungary, which is set to hold crucial parliamentary elections next month. Brussels’ blackmail is an obvious attempt to deprive Viktor Orbán’s conservative government of support.
This is not the end of the fight to defend Poland’s sovereignty in defense and armaments. Donald Tusk’s government is already announcing that it will ignore the presidential veto and proceed with implementing the SAFE loan without legislation. We respond to this with our analyses, equipping politicians with arguments and preparing specific legal measures against lawlessness.
A great success for the “Veto for SAFE” petition
The day the veto was announced began ceremoniously for us. In the morning, representatives of Ordo Iuris were invited to the Presidential Palace, where we were able to submit 40,000 signatures for the petition “VETO forSAFE“. We collected them in a record time for a petition: 10 days!
We handed over the signatures during a meeting held in the same room where, a few days earlier, Karol Nawrocki had spoken with Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Minister of National Defense Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, and President of the National Bank of Poland Adam Glapiński.
Thus, the voices of thousands of fellow countrymen supported President Karol Nawrocki’s difficult decision. We thank them for every signature and for any promotion of this petition!
In announcing his decision, Karol Nawrocki also cited arguments that had appeared in our analyses, commentaries, and petitions.
“As the President of the Republic of Poland, I have a duty to pose the fundamental question: Is a measure that may limit the state’s sovereignty in security matters consistent with the Constitution of the Polish Republic? Powers that constitute the essence of state sovereignty cannot be transferred. And one of them is control over the armed forces. European treaties also confirm this (…) I will not sign an act that undermines our sovereignty, independence, and economic and military security,” said Karol Nawrocki during his Thursday address.
As the President rightly noted, SAFE is a massive loan with a 45-year term, denominated in a foreign currency, and carrying a variable interest rate that is currently unknown. By 2071, our children and grandchildren would have to pay the EU back twice as much as we could receive…
However, our actions went far beyond analyses and the petition. In recent weeks, our experts have held a series of meetings with politicians, journalists, and thousands of citizens. We published comments, press materials, as well as accessible infographics. We appeared in the media, created a range of content that was popular on social media platforms, and wrote about it in newsletters sent to hundreds of thousands of Poles.
We also met with foreign opinion leaders, analysts, and diplomats, to whom we provided English-language analyses and other materials that demonstrated the risks associated with the EU SAFE program. We explained to them that Polish patriots’ resistance to SAFE is justified and well thought out.
A number of EU member states have similar reservations about SAFE. Eight EU countries have decided against the loan—including Sweden, Austria, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovakia, and… Germany! The latter knows full well that they will be the biggest beneficiary of the SAFE program, which will fund orders from across Europe to be fulfilled by the German defense industry. The website of Germany’s Federal Ministry of Defense explicitly states that SAFE will serve “particularly the German interest.”
Donald Tusk announces the overt violation of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. We must stop him!
In response to the presidential veto, Donald Tusk has already announced that the government will take out the EU loan anyway. The Prime Minister announced that the basis for his actions would be… a resolution of the Council of Ministers.
There is no doubt whatsoever that taking out a massive loan to be borne by future generations, despite the President’s clear opposition, will be a gross violation of Poland’s Constitution. This could lead to proceedings before the State Tribunal in the future. Article 89 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland provides that the ratification of an international agreement concerning a “significant financial burden on the State” requires consent in the form of a statute. In turn, Article 90 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland requires that consent be expressed by statute for the ratification of an agreement that transfers to an international organization “the competences of organs of State authority in certain matters.”
Therefore, what we heard from the Prime Minister is an announcement of a violation of the Polish Constitution, which will give rise to constitutional liability for the authorities and criminal liability for officials. Those in power are well aware of it. After all, the previous EU loan mechanism for Poland—the infamous NextGenerationEU post-Covid recovery plan—was undertaken pursuant to an act of Parliament signed into law by President Andrzej Duda.
If Tusk’s government illegally incurs the largest debt in Poland’s history at the expense of our children and grandchildren—we will demand that politicians be held accountable before the State Tribunal, and officials who sign documents related to this illegality will be held criminally liable for exceeding their authority and for causing damage to the State Treasury amounting to billions of zlotys.
A crucial battle for Poland’s sovereignty lies ahead of us. Together, we can defeat it!
Nevertheless, we must still believe that it will be possible to prevent Donald Tusk from entering into this disastrous agreement. The President’s SAFE 0% bill, providing for Polish-only funding of defense procurement, is still awaiting consideration in the Sejm, and we will submit to the Sejm analyses and proposals for substantive amendments to it. We see flaws in the President’s proposal, which will drive inflation by creating money by the National Bank of Poland (NBP). However, if the alternative is sacrificing Poland’s independence, we will support the President’s Chancellery by submitting substantive amendments to eliminate the program’s main shortcomings.
Ahead of us is a crucial battle for Poland’s sovereignty. The defense of the homeland requires our full mobilization. The loss of sovereignty in this area will also erode the ability to defend life, family, marriage, and freedom of speech.
Therefore, we strongly encourage you to support the work of Ordo Iuris experts in defending Polish sovereignty by making a one-time donation or by joining the Circle of Friends of Ordo Iuris, which brings together our regular donors whose support is the foundation of our operations.
Atty. Jerzy Kwaśniewski, President of the Ordo Iuris Institute
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Source of cover photo: Ordo Iuris
