FOR Communications

By the votes of the ruling coalition, the Sejm passed the Act on the establishment of the State Commission for the Study of Russian Influence on the Internal Security of the Republic of Poland in years 2007–2022. Any person, including journalists and members of NGOs, can be subpoenaed, and punished without a court ruling for actions that were not criminal offenses under the law at the time they were committed - and therefore not a crime. This constitutes a violation of the principle of non-retroactivity of the law, expressed in Art. 42 sec. 1 of the Constitution.

The International Monetary Fund’s mission carried out an assessment in Warsaw on 14-24 March under art. IV of the IMF’s Articles of Agreement. The mission pointed to the most important problems of the Polish economy and presented recommendations related to them.

According to the projection of the European Commission, in 2023 and 2024 Poland will pay the highest interest on public debt among all EU Member States - 5.9% and 5.8%, respectively.

The ongoing election campaign has become an opportunity for political parties to present populist solutions to problems that are not always real. One theme are the seemingly high mortgage rates. In reality, however, rates are much lower than the current and projected increase in prices and wages, which means that the burden on debtors would decrease even if they would not pay their instalments and the interest would increase their debt.

After the Commission's complaints to the Court of Justice regarding judges of common courts and the Supreme Court, the Disciplinary Chamber or the so-called Muzzle Act, this time the institution used strongest measure in its arsenal. The complaint that was related to the politicization of the Constitutional Court and its undermining of the foundations of EU law was filed to the court in Luxembourg. Some commentators, as in the case of previous complaints, are of the opinion that the EU does not have the competence to take action regarding Polish courts. This is a myth that should be scattered in the context of the CT case. Finally, one should consider the impact of this complaint on the possible payment of funds to Poland from the Recovery Fund.

The December ruling of the Voivodeship Administrative Court in Gdańsk (case III SA/Gd 1173/21) is indisputably a breakthrough. For the first time, the administrative court overruled the order of the president of the court, ordering a month-long break in the duties of a judge, having previously considered itself competent to review this act.

Core inflation in Poland in December 2022 was 11.5%, while the average in the European Union was 5.97%, and in the euro zone alone it was 5.2%. These huge differences in core inflation prove that the Polish monetary policy was pro-inflationary. These pro-inflationary mistakes had to be made mainly in 2020-2021.

According to the increasingly popular narrative, apartments purchased for investment purposes are almost synonymous with unoccupied buildings, that is uninhabited properties. The villains are investors, both institutional (real estate funds) and individual (wealthy individuals). They allegedly buy apartments from the market in order to "speculatively" refrain from placing them on the market in anticipation of a further increase in real estate prices, thus deepening the housing shortage.

In March 2020, in connection with the crisis caused by the covid-19 pandemic, an amendment to the System of Development Institutions Act was passed, which enabled Polski Fundusz Rozwoju S.A. to implement government support programs for businesses. Their execution in this form quickly contributed to the emergence of a problem for administrative courts and businesses themselves.

From 14th of January, the work of the Civil Development Forum Foundation will be led by the founder of FOR, Leszek Balcerowicz. Sławomir Dudek and Patrycja Satora are leaving the Foundation.