Since the new ruling coalition took office, the process of acquiring KPO funds from the European Union by the Polish government has accelerated significantly. Unfortunately, the process of transferring these funds from the public sector, from the government side, to the private sector has not accelerated nearly as much. The investment processes to be implemented within the framework of KPO are lengthy. Building a factory involves construction of a hangar, installing machinery, and starting production – and all of this needs to be completed in very short timeframes. Many entrepreneurs already note that they simply will not have time to do this. The pace at which calls were announced, in which competitions are decided, and the time necessary to carry out these investments – this pace is too ambitious, considering mundane limitations that don’t have much to do with KPO, but still apply in Poland, like lengthy administrative procedures for obtaining construction permits, fire department approvals, or other elements that could have significant financial consequences. Anyone who does not complete an investment as part of KPO by August 2026, but perhaps even earlier in many cases, will have to return advances or will not receive these funds. There is an exception to this rule, and that is a handful of more than fifty programs implemented under the KPO – those that mainly come from the loan part, e.g. building wind farms at sea or funds obtained from BGK. These are projects where it is enough to sign a contract with the beneficiary by August 2026.
Pertaining to this, Kamil Sobolewski, Chief Economist for the Employers Republic, commented “For example, if a large Polish energy company agrees with a construction supplier that a wind farm will be built in three years, this would somehow confirm that the government can pay out these funds. But that is an exception to the rule, in other cases the clock is ticking. Time is short, and businesses would certainly appreciate if it were possible to extend deadlines within the KPO. This seems necessary to properly absorb these funds. We have 260 billion PLN in the KPO, and we invest 600 billion PLN annually in Poland. These 260 billion are distributed over several years. However, for our economy to develop, investments should amount to about a trillion PLN, i.e. 400 billion PLN more per year. The investment deficit, which we have based on comparisons with countries like the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania – where 27% of the GDP is invested, while in Poland it’s 17% of the GDP – that is the aforementioned 400 billion PLN per year. This would be enough, for example, to build a truly massive and powerful nuclear power plant in Lubiatowo. Remember that this process takes 10 years – so the investment potential that could be released in Poland is indeed enormous. The KPO has, or rather one might say had, the potential to be a driving force in this process. This was successful to a limited extent, which is why we need new driving forces, new incentives that will unlock the potential of 400 billion PLN per year, rather than optimizing the use of the potential of 260 billion spread over 5 years”, analyzed Kamil Sobolewski.
Source: https://ceo.com.pl/procedury-administracyjne-spowalniaja-inwestycje-w-ramach-kpo-88293
