EBPM

Over the last eight years, the Law and Justice (PiS) government in Poland redefined the boundaries of regulations governing the lifestyle of citizens, introducing a series of laws and regulations aimed at promoting desired or healthy habits and behaviors, while limiting access to products and services deemed harmful. From the closing shops on Sundays, through the introduction of a sugar tax, to the ban on the sale of energy drinks to minors—these and other decisions have sparked heated discus-sions about freedom, public health, and the effectiveness of the introduced measures. What were the actual effects of these regulations?

What negatively distinguishes Poland from other countries is not so much the level of taxes, although it has significantly increased in recent years and is higher than the OECD average, but the lack of neu-trality, the complexity, and variability of the system.

In recent years, the quality of law-making in Poland has significantly deteriorated. Practices such as ignoring procedures, bypassing public consultations, using the deputies’ initiative route for govern-ment projects, and last-minute insertions in the final stage of the legislative process have been a con-stant element of the political landscape. These practices served for the rapid implementation of the ruling party's will at the expense of the quality and transparency of legislation. While these practices were not new, they have particularly become widespread since 2015, a trend also confirmed by empir-ical data. This led to a further erosion of citizens' trust in the state—and worse, it undermined trust in democratic processes.