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Contributors to the latest issue of 4liberty.eu Review include Marek Tatała of the Civil Development Forum (FOR) in Poland, Ivan Bregov of the Institute for Market Economics in Bulgaria, and Admir Čavalić of Association “Multi” in Bosnia and Herzegovina, all of which are Atlas Network partner organizations. The content editor of the eighth issue was Tanja Porčnik of the Visio Institut in Slovenia, which is also an Atlas Network partner.

– 25.8 million tonnes of plastic waste are generated in the EU every year – and the trend is upwards. Of this 39% is incinerated, 31% goes to landfill and 30% is collected for recycling (p. 2).

– About 50% of the plastic waste that is collected for recycling is sent to third countries, often with low environmental standards, of this about 85% is currently shipped to China. At the end of 2017, however, China decided to ban the import of plastic waste. (p. 16)

– The “ambitious set of EU measures” proposed in the Plastics Strategy serves to create a “circular plastics economy (p. 4), in which, throughout the entire “life cycle” of products – design, manufacture, use, disposal – resources are conserved, materials are used and remain in the circular economy for as long as possible and waste is avoided [Action Plan for the Circular Economy COM(2015) 614, p. 2–4; see cepPolicyBrief 2016-06].

– The Plastics Strategy aims to play a part in ensuring that, in future (p. 5) - less plastic waste leaks into the environment – particularly the oceans – and - the EU’s dependence on crude-oil imports is reduced.

Three months after Civil Development Forum (FOR) inquired the Minister of Justice about the judges who supported the candidates for the new National Council of the Judiciary (NCJ), we have received answers with mostly… blank pages. As the Minister did not provide all the requested information we face yet another legal battle (after the lawsuit against the decision of the Chief of the Chancellery of the Sejm – lower chamber of the Polish Parliament) in the administrative court for the openness and transparency of public life.

Three months after Civil Development Forum (FOR) inquired the Minister of Justice about the judges who supported the candidates for the new National Council of the Judiciary (NCJ), we have received answers with mostly… blank pages. As the Minister did not provide all the requested information we face yet another legal battle (after the lawsuit against the decision of the Chief of the Chancellery of the Sejm – lower chamber of the Polish Parliament) in the administrative court for the openness and transparency of public life.

On April 19, 2018, the Free Market Road Show visited Warsaw. This year the event took place at SWPS University. The conference began with introductory remarks by Piotr Voelkel (SWPS University), Agata Stremecka (FOR), and Barbara Kolm (Austrian Economics Center), representing the institutions that organized the conference.

On April 27, 2018, Civil Development Forum (FOR) presented The Bill for Government Services in 2017, which shows the structure of Poland’s government expenditures. Like every year, the current seventh edition of the campaign took place just before the tax filing deadline.

For PiS (Law and Justice), any – real or apparent – ills that plague the Polish society serve as a pretext to increase the politicization of the economy. In 2013, that is before PiS came to power, Poland was ahead of other OECD and the European Union countries in terms of the state ownership. Recently, however, nothing has been done to reduce the interference of politicians in the economy. On the contrary, we are still seeing new steps towards further nationalization of enterprises or crowding out the private sector.

In his first parliamentary speech as a prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki (PMM) repeated many theses of the government officials which have been repeated for the last two years. Some of them are wrong and contradict the experiences of other countries. Others, while right, stand in clear contradiction with the actual actions of the Polish government.

For PiS (The Law and Justice Party), any - real or apparent - ills that plague Polish society serve a pretext to increase the politicization of the economy. In 2013, that is before the PiS came to power, Poland was ahead of other OECD countries and the European Union in terms of state ownership. Recently, however, nothing has been done to reduce the interference of politicians in the economy. On the contrary, we are still seeing new steps towards further nationalization of enterprises. After the Bank Pekao S.A. and power plants, the time has come for the emergency medical services.

In his exposé, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki (PMM) repeated many theses proclaimed for the last two years; some of them are wrong and contradict the experiences of other countries; others, while right, stands in clear contradiction with the actual actions of the government.