The acceptance by ECOFIN of the EU Council's Executive Decision marks the formal closure of the Poland’s RRP revision procedure. This means that our country will be able to submit another payment request under the RRP in the near future. In late August/early September, the Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy will submit the second and third payment request under the RRP, with reimbursement expected by the end of 2024. We plan to submit a further two requests at the end of this year.

The RRP was revised to enable the implementation of the reforms and investments it contains.

The RRP was revised in a record time - the entire process took 3,5 months. The changes were based on a review of the status of implementation of the reforms and investments included in the RRP that was carried out by the Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy, together with other ministries, in January 2024.

A month-long public consultation was held on the amendments submitted to the revision of the RRP. On 30 April this year, the Council of Ministers adopted a resolution to amend the RRP, submitted by the Minister of Development Funds and Regional Policy. The revision was then sent to the European Commission.
On 1 July this year, following the bilateral agreement, the EC endorsed Poland's proposal to revise the RRP and presented a draft revised Council’s implementing decision approving the changes to the RRP. The vast majority of the changes (roughly 95%) that were submitted by the Polish side as part of the formal application were accepted by the EC.

Revision of the RRP – key changes

The RRP's revision comprises 7 components. The revision includes 18 reforms (12 reforms from the grant part and 6 from the loan part) and 39 investments (26 from the grant part and 13 from the loan part of the RRP).

The key changes concern:

• Healthcare – regarding the modernisation of the infrastructure of medical treatment facilities; the changes are intended to launch contests in phases for entities in various areas (oncology, cardiology and general support for hospitals).
• Agricultural sector – increased support for farmers and fishermen implementing projects to modernise infrastructure and equipment and support for technologies in agriculture 4.0; increased number of storage and distribution centres built or modernised and wholesale markets modernised and new indicator on education in agriculture 4.0 added.
• Support for local authorities by transferring, from the loan part to the grant part, funding for long-term and geriatric care centres in district hospitals.
• Abolishing the internal combustion vehicle tax to replace it with a system of subsidies for the purchase, rental and leasing of electric cars by natural persons.

The Electromobility Fund with a budget of EUR 1.1 billion (roughly PLN 4.7 billion) will be implemented under the loan part of the RRP.

The funds released from the grant part will be used for:

• EUR 600 million (roughly PLN 2.6 billion) - Food Security and Agriculture 4.0 – including funds for additional 86 distribution and storage centres and wholesale markets, additional support for 30 SMEs in the agrifood sector, modernisation of infrastructure and equipment for over 30,000 farmers and fishermen and to support technology in the field of agriculture 4.0, 50 projects in the field of education on agriculture 4.0;
• EUR 140 million (approx. PLN 602 million) – energy renovation of multi-dwelling buildings;
• EUR 373.75 million (approx. PLN 1.6 billion) – subsidies to purchase/lease/rent electric cars,
• EUR 150 million (approx. PLN 645 million) – modernisation of district hospitals’ infrastructure;
• EUR 40 million (approx. PLN 172 million) - purchase of new laptops for teachers of grades I-III;
• EUR 127 million (approx. PLN 547 million) - new IT systems: expansion of the EZD (electronic document management) public IT system and the addition of e-services as part of Tax Office 2.0 and the implementation of the National e-Invoice System.

Revised RRP

The National Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) encompasses 57 investments and 54 reforms. Under the National Recovery Programme, Poland will receive EUR 59.8 billion (PLN 257.1 billion), including EUR 25.27 billion (PLN 108.6 billion) in grants and EUR 34.54 billion (PLN 148.5 billion) in preferential loans. In line with EU targets, a significant share of the budget under the RRP will account to climate objectives (44.96%), digital transformation (21.28%).