The National Recovery Plan is the document that constitutes the basis for benefiting from the Reconstruction Fund. The document is being drafted in the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy.

At the European Council summit, Polish government won the largest funds for Poland in the history of the EU.

Almost EUR 24 billion from the Reconstruction Fund will be allocated for subsidies which we want to invest in such areas as health care, the transformation towards a "green" economy, innovation, ecological transport or digitisation

says Deputy Minister for Funds and Regional Policy Waldemar Buda, adding

These are substantial funds, which is why we wanted to hear Poles' opinions about the project we prepared. There was a lot of interest in the document. We had dozens of hours of inspiring talks. Now we are working on the final version of the NRP.

The NRP consultation started on 26 February and lasted until 2 April. The kick-off conference was attended by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. As part of the consultations, we organised 3 debates dedicated to the five pillars of the NRP. Any interested person could take part in the event. The form for submitting comments was available on the websites run by the MFiPR: mfipr.gov.pl, funduszeeuropejskie.gov.pl and kpo.gov.pl.

The five-day hearings for the NRP also started on 22 March. The essence of the hearing is that government representatives, who are responsible for the shape of the document, listened to opinions on the draft NRP.

The originator and patron of the hearings is the Subcommittee for Partnership Development, which members include representatives of the government, local government, social and economic partners, as well as civil society organisations. The undertaking is supported organisationally by the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy. The event was prepared by the Stocznia Foundation and the Polish National Federation of NGOs.

Anyone could submit comments to the NRP. Most comments were sent by representatives of local government units, social and economic partners, as well as individuals. “Although the number of opinions is large and their analysis for possible inclusion in the NRP is still underway, there are already decisions on the first changes:

• social organisations will be included in the NRP, as beneficiaries, but also in the process of implementation and monitoring of the NRP measures,
• we will introduce measures dedicated to people with disabilities and their carers,
• we will increase the pool of funds dedicated to entrepreneurship, including for business expansion,
• we will increase the pool for all cities in the section dedicated to "Green and resilient cities", and extend it to include large cities (previously support only covered medium-sized and small cities),
• we will increase funding for zero-emission transport in cities, enabling not only investment in bus fleets but also rolling stocks such as trams.

Consultations and hearings will have a significant impact on the final shape of the documents, which we will submit to the European Commission

summarises Deputy Minister Waldemar Buda.

After social agreement, the draft NRP will be forwarded to the Council of Ministers for consideration. Poland has until the end of April 2021 to submit the NRP to the European Commission. The EC has two months to accept the plan.

Materials:

More about the NRP