Poland’s interior ministry said the meeting, initiated by the Ukrainian side, was held on Friday with Deputy Minister Maciej Duszczyk.
Ministry spokeswoman Karolina Gałecka said Duszczyk informed Ukraine’s ambassador that “the Polish side is working on a law to regulate the legal situation of Ukrainian citizens” and presented a legislative timeline.
The ministry’s comments followed a Facebook post by Ukraine’s ambassador to Warsaw, Vasyl Bodnar, who wrote that Ukrainians’ rights “to residence, work, education, social assistance and medical care in Poland will be guaranteed also after Oct. 1, 2025.”
Bodnar added Poland had said it was working on a solution and that, even without a new law, transitional measures would prevent any legal vacuum.
The embassy pledged to keep Ukrainians informed.
Gałecka cautioned that “what the legal situation of Ukrainian citizens will look like after Oct. 1 we will know after the decision of President Karol Nawrocki.”
Polish media said Nawrocki last week vetoed a bill extending support for Ukrainians who fled Russia’s aggression and proposed an alternative that would limit healthcare and child benefits to Ukrainians employed and paying taxes in Poland.
“We are in a situation in which citizens of the Polish state in their own country are treated worse than our guests from Ukraine,” Nawrocki said.
Experts and business leaders warned the move could hit hundreds of thousands of legally employed Ukrainians and weigh on the economy.
Ukrainians would retain EU temporary protection after Sept. 30, but could face legal issues if Polish law is not extended, they said.
Poland's Rzeczpospolita newspaper cited estimates that the veto could affect about 600,000–700,000 Ukrainians who came to work in Poland and extended their status under the EU’s temporary protection regime.
If protection in Poland is not prolonged and documents are not obtained in time, some may have to leave, according to a lawyer cited by the daily.
Legalizing a stay in such a short time without statutory intervention is practically impossible, said another expert.
Sectors most exposed include manufacturing, construction, trade, HoReCa and transport/logistics, said Andrzej Kubisiak of the Polish Economic Institute.
Official data cited by the paper show Ukrainians made up 5 percent of employees in its registers at the end of June and two-thirds of legally working foreigners.
Limiting access to Ukrainian workers could cause delays, higher labor costs and even production stoppages, Rzeczpospolita reported.
According to figures reported by Polish media, 1.57 million Ukrainians currently hold valid residence permits in Poland, including 990,000 under temporary protection, 60 percent of them women.
Economist Piotr Arak wrote that about 1.3 million foreigners work in Poland, including 820,000 Ukrainians, and urged a swift compromise to preserve stability.
The newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, citing the National Bank of Poland (NBP) and Deloitte, said 78 percent of Ukrainians in Poland are employed. They contributed PLN 15 billion (EUR 3.5 billion) to the budget and 2.7 percent to GDP growth, while “800 plus” social payments to them cost nearly PLN 2.8 billion (EUR 650 million).
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Source: PAP, BBC Polska
Click on the audio player above for a report by Marcin Matuszewski.