The grants, called the Strategic Investment Programme, are part of the Cabinet’s overall package of socio-economic policies for past-pandemic recovery, the Polish New Deal, the state PAP news agency reported.
Speaking to reporters in the northeastern town of Nidzica, where the results of the programme’s first call for projects were announced, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said the Strategic Investment Programme marked "a new chapter in the history of local investments” in Poland.
He added that the Polish New Deal initiative as a whole was "a good, firm response to the crisis” by his conservative government, and a way “of emerging from the doldrums caused worldwide by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Referring to the Strategic Investment Programme, Morawiecki said it was the biggest such project since Poland shook off communism more than 30 years ago, and a unique opportunity “to change the face of our cities, villages, towns, provinces, counties and municipalities.”
He told reporters that a total of 2,780 local governments were receiving funding, with the few remaining ones delayed due to procedural reasons.
Morawiecki said the Polish New Deal was enabling the country to “develop in a fair way,” while the strategic investment programme “shows that any attempts to discriminate against Poland in the European Union, to push us to the margins, will not be effective.”
In a newly published interview with the Financial Times, amid a dispute over access to the EU's post-pandemic recovery funds, Morawiecki accused the European Union of making demands with a "gun to our head," while also vowing to defend Warsaw’s position if Brussels starts a "third world war" by withholding payouts.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, TVP Info