During a cabinet meeting, Minister of the Interior and Coordinator for Special Services Tomasz Siemoniak presented a confidential briefing concerning the growing threat to Europe and Poland, namely the aggressive actions perpetrated by the Russian and Belarusian agencies.  

“Both allied and internal Polish sources indicate that Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are expected to be the most threatened by meddling and hostile activities, with Finland not far behind,” said Donald Tusk during a press conference following the meeting of the Council of Ministers. 

He also noted that the activities of foreign intelligence agencies remains a topic of debates with other European leaders and institutions, including the European Council. Reports from many European capitals were clear.  

“In anticipation of the European Parliament elections, Russia is also gearing up to interfere in the process itself. This is hardly the first time it happens, but we are seeing a worrying trend, as these attacks are growing bigger in scale,” he added.  

Unlike our predecessors, our focus is on rebuilding and bolstering our intelligence services tasked with preventing sabotage and diversion. We are talking about the Internal Security Agency and the Intelligence Agency.  

“Several years ago, Prime Minister Beata Szydło made the decision to shut down ten regional branches of the Internal Security Agency. The Agency’s leaders have little doubt that this decision has greatly weakened the ability to identify and counter such threats,” Donald Tusk explained. 

The Prime Minister announced that the government had decided to reinstate these branches and earmark additional funding, some of which will come from the Prime Minister's discretionary reserve fund.  

“I made the decision to earmark 100 million PLN for bolstering the Internal Security Agency and the Intelligence Agency,” he declared.  

We need to invest more funds into building the barrier along our eastern border to ensure effective protection of our territory. Every day we face irregular border crossing attempts from the Belarusian side. In most cases, these attempts are carried out by organised groups of young and aggressive men.

“We have all seen how the construction works along the Polish-Belarusian border were promoted over the years; however, we need to be clear - the existing barrier does not meet our expectations. During my visit to the Polish-Belarusian border, both the Border Guard and the military asked me to strengthen the barrier,” Donald Tusk pointed out.  

The Prime Minister noted that the service on the Polish-Belarusian border is particularly difficult for the Border Guard and the military today. In addition to equipment, they need understanding and support, including from the general public, especially since both the members of the Border Guard and the military are facing increased aggression from irregular migrants.  

“During today’s meeting of the Council of Ministers, I brought this issue up in my talks with the Attorney General. We need to ensure that our soldiers and officers are protected from the legal point of view as well,” Donald Tusk added.  

The Prime Minister then turned to civilian services, including security staff, pointing our that these days we are all at the “front line, protecting our homeland and our internal security”.  

In recent days, there has been an increase in the number of fires across the country, starting with the fire at the landfill site in Siemianowice Śląskie to the market hall at Marywilska 44 in Warsaw, Bytom bus depot, and a school in Grodzisk Mazowiecki. 

The Prime Minister noted that it was very important to ascertain whether these fires could be reasonably linked to activities of foreign threat actors. 

“For the time being, there is no reason to believe that the fires of the last hours and days were caused by external factors, but this in no way reduces the threat of possible sabotage and diversion,” Donald Tusk admitted.  

He recalled that there have been recent attempts at sabotage and arson, which were foiled, including the arrest made by the Internal Security Agency in Wrocław in late January. The ISA officers detained a member of an organised crime group, carrying out orders of Russian intelligence agencies, at whose behalf he was preparing an arson in the city. 

The Council of Ministers adopted a draft law granting creators and artists royalties for their works being published online.  

“We joined forces with our creative communities and we will make sure that music and film streaming platforms will pay royalties to our creators in accordance with European law,” Donald Tusk assured.   

During today’s meeting, the government also approved a draft law changing social assistance eligibility criteria from 1 January 2025. According to the proposal, the minimum income should be raised to 1010 PLN for single people, and to 823 PLN for each member of a family.