President Andrzej Duda signed the plan into effect on Wednesday after it was approved by Poland's parliament, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
The country's ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party has proposed putting four referendum questions to voters:
1) “Do you support the sale of state assets to foreign buyers, causing the Polish people to lose control over strategic sectors of the economy?”
2) “Are you in favour of raising the retirement age, including the reintroduction of a higher retirement age of 67 years for men and women?”
3) “Are you in favour of dismantling the wall on Poland’s border with Belarus?”
4) “Are you in favour of admitting thousands of illegal migrants from the Middle East and Africa under the mandatory relocation mechanism imposed by the European bureaucracy?”
Polish MPs are set to debate the questions on Thursday, state news agency PAP reported.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told MPs on Wednesday that “giving the people a say in a referendum is what democracy is all about."
Meanwhile, opposition leader Donald Tusk, a former prime minister, has denounced the planned referendum as a political ploy by the governing conservatives to boost their performance in the parliamentary election.
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Source: IAR, PAP
Click on the audio player above for a report by Radio Poland's Michał Owczarek.