Mateusz Morawiecki was speaking after EU leaders reached a deal a day earlier on a massive COVID-19 recovery plan for their economies and the bloc’s next long-term common budget following a marathon summit in Brussels.
Addressing lawmakers in Warsaw on Wednesday, Morawiecki said the bloc’s new 2021-2027 budget approved at the summit “is a very good budget for Poland.”
He added that the EU's Multiannual Financial Framework carried funds to “support our model of sustainable economic growth” and offered a “much better chance of a golden decade” of prosperity for Poland, “of a number of very good years ahead.”
Morawiecki told lawmakers in the lower house of parliament that Poland was set to receive more money from the EU, including in cohesion policy and energy transition funds, “than anyone could have imagined just a few months ago.”
"This is huge, extra money that was not on the table before," Morawiecki said, hailing the summit a negotiation success for his government.
Billions in EU funds for Poland
Briefing Polish MPs on the outcome of the Brussels summit, Morawiecki added that funds from EU coffers "will support the development of infrastructure throughout Poland” and help increase direct payments for Polish farmers, bringing them in line with the EU average.
EU funds will also be spent on innovation and research and development as well as on efforts to ensure higher wages for Polish workers, Morawiecki said.
He also told lawmakers that Poland was the biggest beneficiary of the EU’s cohesion policy, standing to receive around EUR 70 billion in funding from this source.
Morawiecki told reporters on Tuesday morning that the agreement reached in Brussels meant Poland would receive almost EUR 125 billion in non-repayable grants and around EUR 34 billion in cheap loans under both the stimulus plan and the EU's next common budget—working out to "a total of almost EUR 160 billion at current prices.”
Under the deal hammered out by the EU leaders in the early hours of Tuesday, the recovery fund, dubbed "Next Generation EU," will include EUR 390 billion in grants and EUR 360 billion in loans for member states, Poland’s PAP news agency has reported.
According to the Reuters news agency, Poland stands to be a top beneficiary of the recovery package, receiving tens of billions of euros in grants and cheap loans, along with high-debt Mediterranean-rim countries that have taken the brunt of the pandemic in Europe.
When the European Union’s executive earlier this year unveiled its EUR 750 billion proposal to prop up economies battered by the coronavirus, Morawiecki said Poland would spend funds available under the EU recovery plan to build new roads, rail lines and carry out other infrastructure projects to spur its economy.
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Source: IAR, PAP, TVP Info