SME Ombudsman Agnieszka Majewska has submitted comments on a draft regulation by the Minister of Sport and Tourism concerning guarantees granted to entrepreneurs from the Tourism Assistance Fund. Such a guarantee is not mandatory for businesses, but it can significantly affect their ability to meet the statutory requirement to hold financial security in the event of insolvency. According to Minister Agnieszka Majewska, the draft regulation, which may directly affect SMEs, needs to be clarified.
This applies in particular to paragraph 2, which sets out four separate limits on the maximum value of a guarantee. These limits are listed in points, but the wording of the provision does not clearly indicate whether they are cumulative or alternative, nor does it explain how they relate to one another. Majewska therefore argues that the provision should be rewritten in a way that clearly resolves these doubts.
Another comment from the SME Ombudsman concerns the introduction of solutions that would be more convenient for entrepreneurs. One example is a mechanism based on individual risk assessment with a maximum threshold for reducing the guarantee, instead of an automatic 10% reduction. This reduction would apply when a company’s activity is concentrated in the territory of one country. In practice, this could also affect firms focused on offering holidays in Poland, a group in which SMEs make up the vast majority. For these businesses, the solution proposed by the Ministry may be unfavourable.
The draft regulations also raise concerns from the perspective of the principles of equal treatment and proportionality, as set out in Poland’s Business Constitution.
Majewska also points out that the draft uses the term “total value of tourist events”, which has not been defined or clearly specified in the regulations. As a result, there is no guidance on what the term means or how the “total value” should be calculated.
The message of the Ombudsman’s intervention is clear: making the proposed regulations more precise would make them easier to apply in practice.
