In 2024, Spain’s share in Poland’s exports and imports increased. The investments of Polish companies in Spain and Spanish companies in Poland are growing, and both the government and entrepreneurs are hopeful for further development of cooperation. The key issue in Poland and throughout Europe is deregulation, which has become the main topic of speeches by both Polish and European politicians. According to the Deputy Minister of Development and Technology, work is underway and specifics will be revealed soon. Poland has a special role to play during its presidency of the EU Council.
“Polish-Spanish cooperation is developing very well. Last year we broke a record, the increase in trade growth was at 6%, our trade exchange is already at nearly 20 billion euros,” says Michał Baranowski, Deputy Minister of Development and Technology. “We hope for better and better cooperation in trade and investment. There are many examples of great companies that invest here, and Polish companies invest in Spain. Indeed, businessmen praise this mutual cooperation very much.”
Since 2012, Poland has been recording a positive balance of trade with Spain. According to recently published data by GUS, in 2024 Spain is the ninth economic partner of Poland in terms of the value of our export. It amounted to 10.2 billion euros and accounted for 29% of total exports. Import (in terms of the country of origin) was worth 7.8 billion euros, giving the Iberian country 10th place among our partners. If the shipping country is taken into account, import amounted to 9 billion euros (ninth place). In 2023, Spain was the fifth largest foreign investor in Poland. Polish companies also invest in the Spanish market, especially in the IT, finance, construction chemistry, automotive, pharmaceutical and medical, and food industries.
“We want to deepen Polish-Spanish cooperation because there is great potential in many areas. On the one hand, it is renewable energy, and potential closer cooperation is also in the field of infrastructure, also with the joint construction of, hopefully, railway lines. These markets are compatible, for us Spain is also a window to Latin America, we are for Spanish business a window to Eastern and Central Europe, so there is a great deal of potential for further development,” emphasizes the Deputy Minister.
In the same week in which Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Minister of Finance Andrzej Domański presented a plan on the Warsaw Stock Exchange to accelerate investment and deregulation of the economy called “Poland. The Year of Breakthrough,” there was also a meeting of the European Unlocked coalition in Stockholm. Its participants emphasized that Europe can no longer stand still, and businessmen need real changes, not another analysis of the same, well-known barriers for years. Among them, excessive bureaucracy is one of the most serious.
“We all are allies when it comes to deregulation. This is not just a priority for Poland or the European Commission, but for all European countries. The prime ministers who met last week confirmed this. It is the hottest topic and we now need to move from just general declarations to concrete actions. Prime Minister Tusk spoke very strongly about this on Monday,” recalls the Deputy Minister of Development and Technology. “We started working on this some time ago, so we should expect specific measures and ideas soon, both at the European level and at the level of individual countries, on how to introduce these deregulatory measures.”
As reported by Rzeczpospolita, on February 26, the European Commission plans to present the first in a series of Omnibuses, i.e. deregulation packages that are the result of dialogue with businesses. At the start, three legal acts will be revisited: the directive on company reporting in the field of sustainable development (CSDR), the directive on due diligence of enterprises in the field of sustainable development (CSDDD) and the regulation on taxonomy, i.e. the system of classification of economic activity, which defines which actions can be considered environmentally sustainable. EU Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis announced, among other things, a reduction in administrative burdens by at least 25% for all companies and by at least 35% for small and medium-sized enterprises.
“The Presidency gives Poland a chance to set up an agenda, including this agenda in economic matters. Economic security is one of our priorities. This dimension of our presidency has a more European dimension than just bilateral, but during these six months Poland is particularly attractive for both government and business meetings,” says Michał Baranowski.
