The National Reconstruction Plan and the draft Partnership Agreement for the implementation of cohesion policy 2021-2027 in Poland were the subject of a plenary session of the Social Dialogue Council chaired by Jarosław Gowin – Vice-President of the Council of Ministers, Minister of Development, Labour and Technology. The meeting took place on 18 February 2021 in the form of a video conference.

The government side of the meeting was represented by: Olga Semeniuk – Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Development, Labour and Technology, Małgorzata Jarosińska-Jedynak – Secretary of State at the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy, Sebastian Skuza – Secretary of State at the Ministry of Finance, Stanislaw Szwed – Secretary of State at the Ministry of Family and Social Policy, Wojciech Murdzek – Secretary of State at the Ministry of Education and Science, Rafał Weber – Secretary of State at the Ministry of Infrastructure

Deputy Minister Małgorzata Jarosińska-Jedynak presented information on the draft Partnership Agreement, which sets out the objectives and means of investment and spending of cohesion policy, the Fair Transition Fund and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund. The total amount of EU funds allocated to the programmes covered by the Partnership Agreement is EUR 76 billion. It listed the cohesion policy objectives pursued in the Partnership Agreement and presented the categories of regions and the levels of funding. It indicated that comments on the project could be submitted by 22 February 2021. The draft Agreement will then be submitted to the Joint Committee on Government and Local Government and the Council of Ministers and will then be submitted for approval by the European Commission. In conclusion, she stressed that the Ministry of Funds is after consulting with all the provinces in which 3200 entities participated and 160 comments were submitted.

Then Deputy Minister M. Jarosińska-Jedynak discussed the National Reconstruction Plan. It is part of the Instrument for Reconstruction and Resilience, which in turn is part of the €776 billion Next Generation EU instrument. It announced that €724 billion is earmarked for the Instrument for Reconstruction and Resilience, which aims to increase the resilience of the economy as well as rebuild it after the crisis. She indicated that Poland would be one of the larger recipients of this instrument: around €25 billion would be transferred in the form of grants and €34 billion would be loans. Areas to be supported are innovation, green energy, sustainable transport, health, digitalisation. The consultation of the National Reconstruction Plan starts on 26 February this year.

A debate with the social partners took place later in the meeting, which addressed a number of issues concerning m.in: the inclusion of the social partners in the preparation and implementation of the Partnership Agreement and the National Reconstruction Plan, the extension of the consultation deadline for commenting on the Partnership Agreement, forms of support for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Source: http://www.dialog.gov.pl/aktualnosci/art,1209,posiedzenie-plenarne-rady-dialogu-spolecznego-.html