Prime Minister Donald Tusk convened an emergency Cabinet meeting on Friday, saying that while the veto would make implementation "more difficult and sometimes slower," the government would press ahead with the Polska Zbrojna (Arming Poland) programme regardless.
"The president's veto will not stop us," he declared, announcing the government would proceed through a Cabinet resolution instead.
The prime minister was pointed in his criticism of the president's decision, saying European leaders had been calling him all morning, baffled by the move.
"Only Russian newspapers expressed full understanding of the president's veto," Tusk said.
He added that Poland had pushed hard to get the mechanism created, saying he personally took European leaders to the eastern border to show them "the reality on the ground."
The vetoed legislation would have established a financial instrument, managed by state-owned Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego, to channel low-interest EU loans under the SAFE programme for rapidly boosting member states' defence capabilities.
Nawrocki, who announced the veto in a televised address on Thursday, said he would "never sign a law that harms our sovereignty, independence economic security and military security."
Tusk dismissed an alternative proposal floated by Nawrocki and National Bank of Poland governor Adam Glapiński, involving NBP funds, as "dangerous nonsense invented solely to provide an alibi for the veto."
He said Glapiński had earlier written to him expecting a PLN 100 billion (EUR 23.4 billion) loss for the central bank.
The government now plans to rely on its own executive powers, without the legislative framework the vetoed bill would have provided, officials said.
(ał/gs)
Source: PAP