On the 27th anniversary of Poland's accession to NATO, Karol Nawrocki announced his decision to veto the SAFE Act.
The veto bill provided for the creation of the Financial Instrument for safety Enhancement, which would be managed by Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego. With this mechanism, the government could scope for the money from SAFE, the EU's low-interest debt strategy for fast strengthening the defence capacity of EU countries.
Poland applied for backing of EUR 43.7 billion, which was accepted by the EU institutions. According to the government's declarations, as many as 89 percent of these funds were to go to Polish companies from the arms sector.
What do Poles think of SAFE?
According to the latest CBOS survey, 43 percent of respondents believe that the SAFE programme will be beneficial for Poland, with 20.5% of respondents assessing its impact as very positive. In turn, 39 percent of respondents believe that the initiative will prove unfavourable to the country.
The SAFE programme was the subject of 2 CBOS studies conducted in a short period of time. In the first survey, on the general support for Poland's participation in this project, 52 percent of participants declared support and 35 percent opposed.
The evaluation of the programme is clearly linked to the political sympathy of respondents. The biggest support for SAFE is declared by people identifying with the left – 72.7 percent of them measure the programme positively, and 13.2 percent express negative opinion. The ratios on the right are the opposite. In this group, 69.4% of respondents believe that the programme will be unfavourable for Poland, while the possible benefits are seen by 24.2% of respondents.
The CBOS survey was carried out on 9-11 March 2026 by a computer assisted telephone interview (CATI). The survey included 1,000 people over the age of 18, representing a nationwide typical sample.
