The National Reconstruction Plan was presented to the public from the beginning as a large chance for Poland. Politicians have talked about tens of billions of euros from the European Union, which are to change the face of our country: to accelerate development, modernise the economy, support entrepreneurs and even improve the quality of life of the people. The problem is that this plan is mostly financed not by gifts from Brussels, but by loans that Poland (or all of us) will gotta pay. And with interest.
According to authoritative data, the full value of KPO for Poland is almost EUR 60 billion, of which about EUR 34.5 billion are preferential loans. This money is presented as ‘Union measures’, but the facts are simple. It is simply a public debt which will be credited to our finances and which will increase the bill we will leave to future generations. In another words, politicians took credit on our behalf. And we had no real influence on it.
If these funds were spent on absolutely essential investments – those which in the long word would turn into more productive economies and stronger positions of Poland – we could discuss the meaning of specified a commitment. However, what we see in practice shows that any of this money has been directed towards objectives that have small in common with the reconstruction of the state and the economy.
A published interactive map of projects financed from the KPO reveals a number of expenditures that rise legitimate outrage. Examples talk for themselves: a yacht with photovoltaic panels for over half a million PLN, sports bridge courses in Gdańsk for almost 400 thousand, mobile coffee machines for solarium, virtual shooting range, container gym, kebab cooking workshops and even the production of nutritional non-alcoholic beer. From the point of view of free marketplace entrepreneurs, these investments look like a gag – these are things that should be financed by private means of companies, if they see a chance for profit in them, alternatively than from money from public debt.
For years, the “Swajak” Association of Entrepreneurs and Farmers has stressed that the State should not replace the market. The taxpayers' money (whether taxation or debt) should not be spent on luxury desires that are not strategically applicable to the economy. The financing of a yacht or bridge courses under the "rebuilding plan" is simply a caricature of the thought of supporting entrepreneurship. If individual wants to operate in the tourism, leisure or catering industries, the free marketplace gives them full rights. But the risks and costs of specified projects should remainder on owners and investors, not on the shoulders of society as a whole.
This affair has another dimension: it is simply a question of fairness to citizens. erstwhile doctors and nurses compose that their oncological units deficiency basic equipment and hospitals are drowning in debt, it is hard to accept the fact that hundreds of thousands of PLN from KPO go to virtual shooting ranges or ice cream machines. This shows that in the current political system, priorities are not set according to the real needs of the country, but according to who can effectively compose a proposal and convince officials that its thought is "innovative".
The Minister of the Economy defends KPO, saying that controversial projects represent only 0.8 percent of all expenditure. But in absolute figures this means about PLN 1.2 billion – an amount that could save dozens of infirmary branches, modernise railway lines or fund major industrial projects. For an average SME business, 0.8 percent of income could be a margin. For you, it is real money that disappears in projects that do not bring any long-term return.
The free marketplace operates on the basis of simple principles: investment is made where there is real request and a chance of profit, and the hazard is borne by whoever makes the decision. The KPO, in its present form, distorts these principles. It creates a strategy in which companies focus on obtaining grants, not on creating value for the customer. This is not the way to a strong economy. This is the way to depend on public money and the improvement of a "grant business", which will simply fall without further aid schemes.
From the position of consumer patriotism, KPO has another drawback. Many of the projects financed under this plan support products, services or imported technologies – yachts, equipment, digital technologies come from abroad. This means that any of the borrowed money leaves Poland almost immediately after the release. If we are already in debt, these measures should stay in the country, supporting Polish producers, farmers, craftsmen and engineers. In the meantime, we have a situation in which the Polish payer will pay off the credit in the future, any of which already present feeds the accounts of abroad suppliers of luxury goods.
The political aspect cannot be ignored either. Each specified programme makes Poland dependent on decisions of the EU institutions – both on the payment of funds and on the evaluation of implementation of projects. This is not sovereignty, it is the surrender of any control over the economy of entities that are not liable to the Polish electorate. past shows that erstwhile a mechanics of “help money” becomes a habit. It is easier to scope for another tranche from Brussels than to make hard decisions on reforms, deregulation or taxation cuts.
Instead of teaching entrepreneurs innovation and competitiveness, the KPO rewards the ability to compose applications and launder in bureaucratic procedures. In the long term, it's ruining the market. Honest companies that do not want or cannot benefit from grants are pushed out by those who have made grants the main origin of funding. This is not healthy competition, this is simply a distorted economical ecosystem.
It is not about rejecting all forms of cooperation with the European Union. The aim is to make decisions based on common sense, economical account and long-term interest of Poland. alternatively of debting the state to billions of euros, the “Swajak” Association believes that we should make conditions in which entrepreneurs and farmers can invest their own resources and make in the free market. Lower taxes, little bureaucracy, a unchangeable law – they are real recovery tools. Not loans given in competitions where the best business thought wins, but the best written application.
KPO in its present form is simply a trap. It gives the illusion that money has come from Brussels, while in reality we will pay it back. Whether projects are successful or unsuccessful. In addition, this mechanics demoralises both public administration and part of business – teaching that quality and innovation request not be competed erstwhile it can compete in obtaining grants.
Therefore, as an association promoting the free marketplace and consumer patriotism, we talk clearly: Poland does not request further programs financed from debt, which are fields of abuse and waste. We request fair rules of economical game, which will let Polish entrepreneurs to compete in the planet and Polish consumers to support home production. We request a state that does not indebt citizens to finance yachts and bridge courses, but that removes barriers to fair, independent development.
KPO was to be a developmental impulse, and it became another example of how large plans and beautiful slogans can be collided with the Polish reality, in which waste of public money goes hand in hand with deficiency of responsibility. We appeal to all entrepreneurs, farmers and consumers: let us look at the power, support Polish companies and request an economical policy that is not based on debt, but on a free marketplace and common sense.
