Poland wants to devote loans from SAFE to the improvement of army capacity in the field of mobility, drone troops and air defense," said representatives of the government and armed forces in the Sejm. They reported to the subcommittee members the state of play on the implementation of this EU programme. As they stated, the government is now focusing on preparing a list of projects to be funded with SAFE.
Adopted during the Polish Presidency of the European Union SAFE program expects associate States to jointly draw up low-interest loans of EUR 150 billion (the loans will be repaid for 45 years) and the funds raised will be utilized to strengthen defence, including mainly for the acquisition of military equipment and ammunition. The funds from SAFE will besides be available to upgrade the military's road and bridge infrastructure.
A fewer weeks ago, the European Commission announced that the biggest beneficiary of the SAFE financial instrument will be Poland. Our country will receive more than EUR 43 billion at its disposal, which it will be able to dispose of on its own or jointly with another countries.
At the request of the Members, on Wednesday, 8 October, during the gathering of the Permanent Subcommittee on Budget and Finance of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland, the Ministry of State Assets, National Defence and abroad Affairs presented information on plans to usage the funds allocated to Poland from the EU SAFE programme, in peculiar as regards the modernisation of our Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland and the improvement of the capabilities and competences of Polish defence manufacture companies.
The Defence Ministry at the gathering represented Marceli Niezgoda, MON lawyer for safety and Defence Fund Support, and the Acquisition and usage of European Defence Measures. An authoritative who, on behalf of the Deputy Prime Minister, the head of the MON Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, oversees the work of the SAFE team, stressed that the government is presently focusing on the preparation of the papers required by the Union, namely, the list of projects to be financed from SAFE, and establishes details of their implementation with the European Commission.
– Among another things, the Polish side expects guidelines from the EC regarding VAT exemption – explained Mr. He added that the subject of the negotiations was besides the participation of non-member countries in the programme. “We would like to engage in the SAFE instrument, in joint projects specified as the UK, Canada and South Korea,” he stressed.
As the Deputy Minister of abroad Affairs Władysław Teofil Bartoszewski pointed out, our country wants to allocate loans from SAFE to make the capabilities of the armed forces in terms of mobility, drones and air defense. A typical of the Ministry of abroad Affairs pointed out that now the precedence is to prepare the projects properly, so as not to squander the opportunities offered by SAFE.
– We must besides prepare national financing instruments for the modernisation of the armed forces from the formal legal side, e.g. the Ministry of Defence must urgently scope an agreement with the Ministry of Finance on Armed Forces Support Fund – stated Bartoszewski. As he explained, the usage of SAFE funds only through the Fund may prevent, for example, their usage for joint projects with Ukraine.
The fact that the government is preparing intensively to submit an appropriate application to SAFE (the deadline is 30 November) was ensured by Konrad Golot, Deputy Minister of State Assets. He stressed that his ministry received from the Polish Armed Forces Group, among others, an analysis of the products produced in the holding in terms of their eligibility for the SAFE programme. – The analysis shows that most of the equipment of the PGZ, which is the subject of possible interest of the General Staff of the Polish Army as part of the collection from the SAFE programme, meets the conditions required by this programme – provided Deputy Minister Golot.
Jan Grabowski, vice-president of the PGZ-etu, stressed that his company knows how large a chance it is for it to pay billions of euros of orders from the EU project. “This program is simply a large chance for Polish armory, which will not happen again soon,” said Grabowski.
