WARSAW — Polish President Karol Nawrocki refused Tuesday to sign a law enabling Poland to access almost $51 billion in preferential defense loans facilitated by the European Union, claiming it would be wrong to make Poland more dependent on Brussels.
Instead, the president proposed an alternative draft law suggesting national resources that could be used instead of European loans to pay for further investments in defense.
Subsequent Polish governments have boosted Poland’s defense spending since Russia’s full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine in 2022. But while the liberal government led by Donald Tusk is happy to coordinate efforts with the European Union, the nationalist president has proven more euro-skeptic and maintained a friendlier rapport with the Trump administration.
Since taking office last year, Nawrocki has positioned himself as a main opponent of the influential prime minister, repeatedly vetoing laws proposed by the executive.
According to Nawrocki’s office, the president still has until March 20 to decide on whether he will ultimately veto the government’s law on the EU defense loan.
Poland was set to be the largest beneficiary of the $176-billion EU loan program dubbed SAFE, or Security Action for Europe, and meant to boost European defense readiness in a period when the U.S. has been diminishing its role in the continent’s security.
To access the funds, the liberal Polish government prepared a list of 139 projects it intends to finance with the money, 30 of which are dedicated to strengthening the country’s eastern borders. It promised 80% of the money will go to domestic industry.
Yet Nawrocki and the main opposition party supporting him, the national-conservative Law and Justice, or PiS, have been critical of Poland’s participation in SAFE. They argue the money comes with EU conditions, making Poland more dependent on Germany, and encourages purchases from European manufacturers at the expense of U.S. producers.
“Polish independence has no price,” PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński said last month. “What they propose to us is a Poland under the German boot, and we are rejecting this German boot.”
The U.S. has also openly criticized SAFE.
“The United States has expressed concerns about how EU defense initiatives like Security Action for Europe (SAFE) and the European Defense Industry Program (EDIP) restrict market access for American companies,” Andrew Puzder, the U.S. ambassador to the EU, and Matthew Whitaker, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, wrote in an opinion piece published in February by POLITICO Europe.
The two wrote that such European programs “undermine collective defense” by limiting competition, stifling innovation and depriving U.S. companies of necessary orders.
“I can’t understand how, in a situation with global conflicts and war on our border, someone can think about blocking such things as SAFE, those billions for the Polish army and arms industry,” Tusk said, commenting on Nawrocki’s resistance to SAFE. “But no matter how striking that is, we will surely prepare a plan B.”
The Polish government had earlier said it would be able to still take advantage of SAFE in case of a veto by Nawrocki, albeit under more restrictive conditions.
Ciobanu writes for the Associated Press.
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