Macierewicz: New Defence Budget Act and Wisła Contract Conclusion – Expect These Until the End of the Year

On 12th March 2017 Poland celebrated the 18th Anniversary of accession to NATO. Antoni Macierewicz, Polish Minister of Defence, who, on that occasion, took part in the meeting organized on Monday at the Military Foreign Affairs Department of the Polish MoD, which also involved representatives of the NATO diplomacy, announced that the government is willing to finalize works on the act that would provide the Army with defence funds at the minimum level of 2% of GDP within the corresponding year, before the end of 2017.

This would be a step towards implementation of the assumptions contained within the Strategy for Responsible Development, in line with which Poland should increase its defence expenditure up to the level of 2.2% of GDP before 2020, and 2.5% of GDP before the year 2030. The document places an emphasis on the fact that the GDP contribution shall be calculated in line with the NATO methodology, meaning that the relevant indicator would refer to the corresponding (current - i.e. defence budget for the year 2018 would be set at the level referring to GDP for the year 2018), not the preceding year (as it is, at the moment, provided for within the Polish legal regulations).

This year, as I hope, an Act is going to be adopted, which is going to permanently, as a base, take the 2 percent (of GDP allocated to the defence expenditure - editor’s note) and which is going to systematically increase the financial efforts made by Poland.

Moreover, justifying the fact that Secretary of State at the Polish Ministry of Defence, Bartosz Kownacki, was not present at the meeting, Macierewicz informed that the aforesaid official has been recently dealing with the negotiation procedures related to implementation of the Wisła programme. Antoni Macierewicz also discussed and talked about the results of the aforesaid talks in an optimistic manner, assuring that by the end of this year the Polish authorities would sign the contract, concerning the project’s implementation.

I, with a high degree of responsibility, may claim that this agreement, concerning the Wisła project, is going to be signed.

Polish MoD has issued a Letter of Request last year, concerning the acquisition of eight Patriot missile batteries complemented with the IBCS command suite which, even now, still has not entered the manufacturing stage. Meanwhile, MEADS offer is also being taken into consideration.