First Meeting of the Polish Offset Committee

Amended Offset Act transferred the point of focus of the offset investments from the financial benefits to the defence benefits. The changes mean that there is a need to adopt the Polish legal regulations to the law of the European Union, including the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union, directive regarding the orders within the field of defence and security, and offset code of the European Defence Agency.

Minister of Defence now will have power to undertake the decisions within the scope of the offset agreements, while the Ministry of Economy, which has been responsible for the offset-related issues so far, will take care of the programmes which have been already initiated. This is why the offset committee has been created within the structure of the Ministry of Defence. Press services of the Ministry place a great emphasis on the fact that the offset is to, above all, make it possible to create capability of maintaining the combat readiness of the acquired armament independently, without any external help.

During the inaugural meeting, which took place on 15^th January this year, members of the committee, led by the deputy Minister of Defence, Czeslaw Mroczek, have talked about establishing the national capabilities of the Polish defence industry, within the field of manufacturing, servicing and conducting overhauls of the military equipment.

These are relevant issues, due to the fact that in the nearest future the Ministry of Defence will be trying to complete the most important equipment and armament procurement programmes. These include the deals which are related to acquisition of SHORAD and Medium Range Air Defence systems, submarines or assault and multi-purpose helicopters.

We would like to achieve maximum involvement of the Polish industry in the projects, which are similar to the aforementioned initiatives. Regardless of the selected supplier, our expectation is that we will establish a partnership between the Polish defence industry and the foreign contractor.

Due to the fact that Polish Ministry of Defence is currently in process of realizing a vast number of procedures, the offset committee immediately started the discussion covering the issue of the most urgent ones, from the point of view of realization of the technical modernization plan. Secretary of the Offset Team, reserve brig. Gen. Stanisław Butlak presented the information regarding the offset offers related to the “Wisła” medium range air-defence and anti-missile system, and the “Orka” submarine programme.

Offset is to be a tool, which would make it possible to realize the basic goals: creating the capabilities of the Armed Forces, and creating the capabilities of the Polish defence industry.