Warsaw, 15^th March 2019

 

POSITION OF THE UNION OF ENTREPRENEURS AND EMPLOYERS ON THE PROJECT OF THE ACT AMENDINGTHE ACT ON ROAD TRANSPORT AND THE ACT ON DRIVERS’ WORK TIME

 

A new version of the draft Act amending the Act on road transport and the Act on drivers’ work time (UD 277) has been published on the website of the Government Legislation Centre recently. As indicated by the Ministry of Infrastructure, responsible for legislative work in this respect, the main objective of the project is to regulate the activities of intermediaries when outsourcing passenger transport services. The legislator’s intention is to ensure equal conditions of competition and passenger safety for all entities operating on the market and to guarantee a set quality of services.

Compared to previous versions, the change of highest importance introduced at the last stage of legislative work is the resignation from the solution enabling the use of mobile applications as device for taxi fare calculation (cf. proposed Article 4 in the draft version of 12^th February 2019). As reasoning for the necessity to withdraw this provision, the Ministry of Infrastructure indicated the negative position of the Minister of Finance regarding the draft regulations.

We believe that the introduction of such significant changes to the project at such a late stage of the process does not serve in any way the quality of legislation in Poland and does not inspire entrepreneurs’ confidence in the state. This is inconsistent with all good practices of consultation. We regret that the second-last version of the project – a good compromise, reducing restrictions on taxis, at the same time regulating the rules of intermediaries – has been changed in this way. Preventing the use of mobile applications as a device used to charge a taxi fare means that the taximeter will remain the only acceptable device. It is an anti-development solution, contrary to the compromise spirit of the previous version of the project.

Undoubtedly, the possibility of using mobile applications as devices for taxi fare calculation would finally make it possible to give up the obligation to use standard taximeters. It should be pointed out here that the use of a mobile application to determine the fare allows for indication of the price to the passenger before its commencement. Getting into a taxi, the passenger, unlike when using a traditional taximeter, is therefore fully aware of the amount of the fare that will have to be paid for transportation. This knowledge is often an important criterion for a passenger when choosing both the means of transport and the provider of such a service. In our opinion, consumers should be given the opportunity to choose whether they want to set fares based on taximeters or decide to use more innovative tools, such as mobile applications.

The legislator’s admission of only taximeters in the new draft in no way fits into the target direction of development of the Polish economy, outlined among others in the Strategy for Responsible Development. Supporting innovativeness was intended to be one of the government’s priorities, while the resignation from allowing the use of mobile applications to charge a transport fare is an action going in the opposite direction. It will not be possible to provide new solutions enabling the implementation of this type of services, as it will still be mandatory to use taximeters as devices calculating the price of transport dependent on the exact distance and time travelled.

It should also be emphasised that maintaining the solutions already in force may lead to a decline in competitiveness on the passenger transport market. The obligation to use taximeters will prevent business entities from operating solely on the basis of mobile applications. The consequence of this state of affairs will certainly be the deterioration of the quality of passenger transport services by taxis, but also the increase in the prices of such services.

Pursuant the facts listed above, on behalf of entrepreneurs, we appeal for the reinstatement of provisions to the draft law that will allow the use of mobile applications as devices for calculating taxi fares.

 

15.03.2019 Position of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers on the Act amending the Act on road transport and the Act on drivers’ work time

 

Fot. MichaelGaida/pixabay.com

Warsaw, 14^th March 2019

 

Entrepreneurs continue to feel positive about the condition of the Polish economy. This is indicated by the latest forecasts of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers outlines in the next wave of the Busometr Index survey, whose reading amounted to 55.2 points. This is a result similar to the study from the 2^nd half of 2018.

It should be stressed that this is the second wave since the survey is carried out on a different business base (previously the ZPP (the Union’s) database, presently – the one of Ariadna National Research Panel). The sample structure in terms of the size of the surveyed companies in this measurement and the previous ones does not differ, but the demographic structure of respondents has changed considerably.

The results of the study in the “labour market (remunaerations and employment)” section are the best of the three criteria analysed. Its value for the current reading is 60.4 points. One can see here a slight decrease compared to the second half of 2018 (then the value of this component amounted to 61.9 points).

In the case of “remunerations”, the barometer amounted to 61.2 points. As many as 35% of entrepreneurs declare an increase in remuneration in the near future. In terms of “employment”, 33% of respondents plan to increase it.

The lowest concerns related to the situation on the labour market over the next 6 months are demonstrated by entrepreneurs from the commercial sector (here the indicator reached 63.7 points). Production and services sectors followed closely (60.5 and 59.3 points, respectively).

The overall value of the Busometr Index was also influenced by the “economic situation” component, which currently stands at 55.6 pts. (increase by 0.2 points in relation to the previous survey). 36% of respondents claim that in the next six months the economic situation will improve, while 24% expect it to deteriorate.

However, the mood of entrepreneurs in the area of “investment” is not optimistic – the total value of the component was 45 points (decrease by 8.7 points in relation to the previous half a year ago). Over half of the respondents, 55%, declared investment plans, 45% do not plan any activities in this area. Entrepreneurs from the small business sector show a high propensity to invest (52.3 points); there is less optimism among micro and large enterprises (respectively, 41.4 and 47.6 points).

The results of the study were summed up by the president of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers Cezary Kaźmierczak.

“It is clear that the moods regarding the situation on the labour market remain very good,” he said. “Companies pay more and increase employment, and it seems that this trend will continue. Entrepreneurs are expecting a continuation of the good times at the moment, which is of course great news, but we must be worried about the investment reading and a decrease by almost 9 points. It is a clear signal for the government that businesses needs a stable regulatory environment to be able to invest.”

***

Busometr ZPP – the Index of Economic Mood in SME Sector is an economic barometer illustrating the level of optimism in small and medium enterprises, and their plans for the coming six months.

Three components affect the index: (1) the economic situation, (2) labour market (remunerations and employment) and (3) investments.

A value within the range of 0-100 is assigned to each component.

The Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers along with Maison&Partners conduct the research among a representative group of small and medium enterprises (up to 250 employees). Busometr ZPP is published every six months.

Small and medium enterprises constitute in Poland 99.8% of all the companies in the country. They create three quarters of the work places and generate 67% of GDP.

 

14.03.2019 ZPP Busometr Index. Forecast for 1^st half of 2019

 

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Warsaw, 28^th February 2019

 

Polish companies should give Russia a try

 

Polish companies should test their strength in Russia – the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers postulates in their report. The report published by the Union describes in detail the possibilities and conditions of doing business in the Russian Federation. In spite of the cold political relations, one should try to develop economic relations.

“Polish business in Russia should be an element of Polish ‘soft power’, especially in the Kaliningrad Oblast,” said the Cezary Kaźmierczak, President of the Union. “I wouldn’t recommend any Polish entrepreneur to build a factory there, but any other type of business should be fine. Building such bridgeheads is beneficial for Poland and competition there is also moderate making it relatively easy to be successful.”

Kaźmierczak also appealed to the Polish authorities to restore the local border traffic with Kaliningrad. It is both of economic significance, very important for the border regions, and politically relevant. Residents of Kaliningrad have stopped perceiving Poles as enemies – a trend that ought to be continued. “The borderless movement with Kaliningrad is one of our few soft initiatives that we have succeeded at,” he said.

In terms of legal aspects, for a foreign entity there are three basic ways of running a business in Russia: as an exporter, by opening a sales office, a representative office or a branch, or by opening or taking over a company operating in Russia. The most popular legal forms are, like in Poland: a limited liability company or a joint-stock company. According to analyses by the World Bank, the establishment of a company in Russia takes a dozen or so days on average, whereas the liquidation of an economic entity registered in Russia lasts 6-12 months.

The tax system in Russia includes the standard CIT rate in the amount of 20%. On the other hand, the VAT rate was raised on 1^st January 2019 from 18% to 20% (with the concession rate being 10%). The property tax must not exceed 2.2% of the book value of fixed assets, whereas social security contributions – 30% of the employee’s annual income (above a certain level – the premium value drops to 15.1% of income). PIT, CIT and VAT taxes are collected on a monthly basis.

As regards labour law, employment conditions are similar to the ones in Poland, as employment contracts can be concluded for a definite period (up to 5 years) or unspecified, the trial period lasts 3 months (in some cases it is possible to extend it to 6 months), but attention should be drawn to the fact that the employer has a much broader red tape requirement in Russia (in the Russian language), it is therefore advisable to use external HR services to avoid future problems.

Customs regulations were developed within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU comprising of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan). Since 2012, Russia also belongs to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

It is also worth paying attention to the values and trends of Russia’s foreign trade in recent years. Generally, there is a close correlation between Russia’s exports and imports. In 2008-2009: declines were observed; in the years 2011-2013: stagnation; in the years 2014-2016: further declines; whereas since 2017: there are symptoms of recovery and growth. The last trends are indirectly related to the persistence of a high level of prices of raw materials exported by Russia, mainly energy-related, which translate into a direct inflow of funds and a revival of demand for imported goods and services, both of an investment and consumption nature. It is expected that the above trend will not weaken significantly in the coming years, nor will it reverse. In 2017, imports of goods and services to Russia closed in the amount of USD 227.5 billion, and the index for the first half of 2018 shows an increase in imports by 13.4% (year-on-year), which indicates that imports in 2018 may oscillate within USD 250 billion.

Poland is an important trading partner of the Russian Federation. According to data for 11 months of the previous year, we imported Russian goods and raw materials worth USD 15 billion (a 48.2% increase compared to the year before), while our exports to Russia amounted to USD 4.61 billion (increase by 5.1%). Taking into account the size of the economy, Polish trade with Russia is relatively higher than the trade turnover of other significant Russian partners, such as Germany, France or Italy. This proves that there are numerous trade ties and there’s cooperation between the two nations in spite of rather difficult political relations. The lack of a balanced trade ration with Russia (much higher value of imports to Poland than that of our exports) can be treated as an opportunity for future development, in terms of promotion of Polish products and brands on the market of our eastern partner.

Russian companies, Poland’s trading partners, have their headquarters mainly in Moscow, the Moscow region, as well as in St. Petersburg and the Kaliningrad region. Especially the last of them – connected to the active policy of the Oblast’s authorities and those of the Russian Federation as well as with regard to the opening to new perspectives of international trade – aims to attract investment (including that from Poland) and to revive cooperation, therefore it may become a promising area for increasing the activity of Polish companies.

 

28.02.2019 Report by the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers: Business in Russia

 

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Warsaw, 27^th February 2019

 

Growing number of Poles oppose to restricting trade on Sundays

 

The number of people negatively assessing solutions limiting trade on Sunday is gradually growing, while the percentage of respondents who are full supporters of the regulations is decreasing – these are the rudimentary conclusions from the research carried out by Maison&Partners on behalf of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers.

Since the beginning of 2019, more restrictive trade regulations have been in force – stores can be opened on only one Sunday a month, unlike two – as it used to be back in 2018. Increasing the level of restrictions in force, in line with the results of previous studies, causes an increase in the number of people negatively assessing solutions limiting trade on Sundays.

“Presently, the regulations in force since the beginning of 2019 are negatively assessed by 51% of respondents, while in November this number amounted only 46%,” points out prof. Dominika Maison. “At the same time, 42% Poles declare that they disapprove of closing stores on Sundays, and this is 4 percentage points more than in December 2018. It is clearly visible that, in line with our predictions and the results of previous editions of the study, the regulations on reducing trade with their gradual exacerbation are becoming more and more annoying in people’s view.”

The camp of full supporters of these changes aimed at restricting trade on Sundays is shrinking. Whereas in November 2018, there were 31% of them, currently not more than 24% of Poles declare their full support for these regulations at the moment.

However, what is not changing are the profiles of supporters and opponents of limiting trade on Sunday. Traditionally, the majority of opponents of restrictions are residents of small towns inhabited by fewer than 20,000 inhabitants, as restrictions limited their opportunities of spending their free time on weekends, and major cities inhabited by over 100,000 people. At the same time, while among the supporters of restrictions, there is exactly the same percentage of people working in trade as in others sectors, in terms of opponents, the group of people currently working in trade clearly stands out in numbers.

As in previous studies, approx. 60% of respondents declare that they do their shopping on Sundays subject to a trade ban. As many as 76% from them go to small grocery stores for this purpose, and about 40% decide to shop at petrol stations.

“We have been conducting regular surveys of the attitudes of Poles towards trade restrictions on Sundays for several months and generally all indicators remain at the same level, except two: the number of opponents of enforced solutions is increasing, and the number of supporters is decreasing,” sums up Cezary Kaźmierczak, President of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers. “That’s exactly what we predicted. The less trade-free Sundays there are, the more Poles are concerned about the regulations. Solutions that are to come into force in 2020 are negatively assessed by 58%, while a few months ago, it was 53%. It’s probably quite a strong signal for the ruling party to change these regulations as soon as possible, as the Polish people simply do not want them.”

 

27.02.2019 Survey by the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers: Attitudes and opinions regarding the restrictions on Sunday trade – wave 3

Warsaw, 21^st February 2019

 

The Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers on the eurozone – there is no need to hurry

 

The Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers has published a report on Poland’s entry into the Euro zone – it analysed probable profits and losses related to the possibility of Poland joining the Monetary Union and replacing the zloty with the euro. As a result of this analysis, scepticism is recommended as to the plans for the rapid introduction of the single market currency.

The study reminds the reader of the motives behind the creation of the euro. “From the very beginning, the euro was a political project, not an economic one. The fall of communism resulted in a political vacuum. Living in the shadow of the Soviet-American conflict, Western Europe faced several dilemmas, including the issue of solving the problem of a divided German state. Other European powers, primarily France, concluded that the consent to Germany’s re-unification was conditioned by their adoption of the single European currency. They feared the strength of the German mark,” remembers professor Robert Gwiazdowski, author of the report.

Due to the fact that non-economic factors were behind the introduction of the euro, many economists believed that this experiment could not succeed. “Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman predicted that the currency would last for about 10 years. In fact, he was not mistaken, as it was after a decade when the eurozone suffered from a big crisis, which would end with the collapse of the project, had it not been for the European Union’s leading states, obviously motivated by political factors,” adds Robert Gwiazdowski.

The public opinion is convinced that Poland has committed to become a member of the euro area. Although this is seemingly true, it is worth recalling that no date has ever been set. Moreover, the accession to the eurozone was to be based on the criteria agreed to in Maastricht, which are no longer valid today. The report proves, therefore, that there is no legal possibility of pressuring Poland in the context of joining the Monetary Union.

In Poland, the discussion with regard to joining the eurozone resembles the one in Western Europe when the concept of the new currency were merely created. “The voices calling every now and then for the euro to be introduced as soon as possible are only political actions, without any justification. The wealth of nations is not the result of the colour of the paper one uses in a store to pay,” said Cezary Kaźmierczak, president of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers.

The report names a number of risk that could impact the Polish economy in the case of an ill-considered introduction of the euro. Interest rates set by the European Central Bank may turn out too low for Poland, which is a country with low GDP and a relatively low level of prices, which in turn may result in macroeconomic imbalances, including a real estate bubble. Furthermore, the Polish economy would be deprived of today’s trump card on the European market, namely low labour costs. Poland is not ready yet to compete with Western countries in other fields, e.g. with the degree of innovativeness.

The report also point to considerable differences betwen the Polish economy and the economies of euro area members, e.g. greater flexibility of the labour market or low development of the rental market. The common monetary policy may not be adapted to the cyclical situation in our country. When functioning within the Monetary Union, it is also more difficult to react effectively to the crises encountered.

“In a world of diversified economies, a common currency will either have an inflated value for some or an underrated for others. Strong countries will therefore become stronger, whereas weaker ones will become even weaker. Therefore, we have to first become a strong economy, and only then can we think about adopting a common currency,” says Tomasz Wróblewski, president of WEI.

 

21.02.2019 Report of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers: The Euro. A legal and economic analysis of the profits and losses of Poland’s accession to the euro area

 

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Warsaw, 19^th February 2019

 

Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers on Sunday trade in Europe:
Polish regulations extremely restrictive

 

Free trade on Sunday rather than any restrictions is the standard in Europe, and Polish regulations in this area, in the target shape, are extremely restrictive – these are the most rudimentary conclusions from the report by the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers on trade on Sundays in Europe.

The postulates of limiting trade on Sundays are in Poland nothing new under the sun. This topic would come back every now and then to the public debate over the last several years, but it did not materialise in the form of specific provisions until November 2017, when the law on limiting trade on Sunday was passed.

“From the very beginning, the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers was critical about the draft law limiting trade on Sunday,” says Marcin Nowacki, vice-president of the Union. “We pointed out that such a sectoral form of regulation would in no way serve the majority of employees. We also emphasised that it certainly would not help small shop owners, but rather the opposite, meaning it would lead to a wave of bankruptcies. Today we see that we were right.”

Regardless of the views on the regulations in force since March 2018, it should be noted that the supporters of these restrictions often refer in their argumentation to examples of other countries in the European Union where allegedly analogous provisions apply. Meanwhile, the Polish legislator, limiting trade on Sunday, decided to take a course directly opposite to European trends.

“One must stress the fact that most European Union member states do not restrict trade on Sundays in any way,” said Katarzyna Włodarczyk-Niemyjska, director of the Law and Legislation Department of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers. “Those countries that had decided to introduce such restrictions, did so a long time ago, in completely different socio-economic conditions and generally are now withdrawing from this solution and liberalising the law. In turn, Hungary, which decided to undertake such an experiment relatively recently, immediately, because after only one year of the new regulations being in force, returned to free Sunday trade.”

At the same time, the Union’s experts point out that the minority of countries – that decided to limit trade on Sundays – introduced a variety of solutions. The almost total ban, which is to be in force in Poland from 2020 on, is a negative phenomenon on a European scale. It turns out that the legal landscape in the area of limiting trade on Sundays is much more complex than the simple dichotomy: “total ban” or “total freedom”.

“In the case of countries that restrict trade on Sunday, the standard from which basically only Poland breaks out is to use a variety of mechanisms mitigating the negative effects of such regulations,” says Jakub Bińkowski, secretary at the Department of Law and Legislation of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers. “Amongst these solutions, one can name, for instance, particular zones where trade on Sunday is allowed, the transfer of certain competences in this regard to local governments or extensive subjective exclusions relating, for example, to the store’s area.”

Spanish solutions constitute a series of interesting examples implemented to mitigate the risk arising from restricting trade on Sundays, as they combine all of the above-mentioned mechanisms. The Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers consistently postulates the withdrawal from the Sunday trading ban and replacing it with a Labour Code guarantee of two free Sundays a month for all full-time employees. This way, all sectors of the economy will be able to function normally on all days, while achieving the basic goal of the act on restricting trade on Sunday.

 

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Warsaw, 11^th February 2019

 

50 million inhabitants of Poland. Real actions, not just dreams

 

If Poland is to develop and build its position in Europe of a significant state, it must also be strong in the number of inhabitants. This is the main conclusion of the report of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers and the Warsaw Enterpise Institute. The authors wonder if in 30 years, Poland can be inhabited by up to 50 million people. About 11.5 million people more than today and more than 16 million more people than the demographic forecasts assume.

In Poland, for many years now, too few children are being born to ensure replacement of generations. Not only because the following generations are less numerous than the previous ones, but also because an increasing number of people are emigrating from Poland. There are already over 2.5 million Poles living abroad. We live increasingly longer, but there is ever fewer of us. From a young society, 20 years ago, we have become a society of older people.

Since the beginning of this decade, the number of inhabitants of Poland has stopped growing. If within 20-30 years we fail to reverse this trend, Poland has no chance of catching up with the West in terms of prosperity and economic development. According to the forecasts of the Central Statistical Office of Poland, even in case of the most optimistic scenarios of the Family 500+ programme’s impact on demography, the fertility rate in 2050 will amount to 1.85. The social policy that is being carried out may slightly reduce demographic risks, but it will not reverse the trend. The fertility rate must increase to at least 2.1.

In order to significantly increase the number of inhabitants of Poland, it is necessary to change the philosophy of functioning of the whole country. To this end, the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers together with Warsaw Enterprise Institute propose a comprehensive program of demographic reforms in three points:

1. A reasonable and effective pro-family policy, the aim of which is to promote families in Poland in the 2 + 2 and 2 + 3 models. To achieve this, the following actions are necessary:

• increase in the number of financially accessible nurseries, kindergartens, school and out-of-school dayrooms,
• making labour law more flexible so that more people benefit from part-time work and other flexible forms of employment,
• review of parental and social benefits so that they simultaneously protect families in emergency situations and serve as guarantee for employers that employees have other options than taking advantage of employment to obtain financial benefits,
• creating an effective system of home construction executed by both the local governments and private companies in partnership,
• strengthening the position of local government as an institution that supervises and builds social infrastructure in the regions.

2. Creating conditions conducive to the return of emigrants from abroad, which will be achieved thanks to:

• reducing the tax burden on taxes and quasi-fiscal charges,
• creating an institutional order that ensures economic freedom and the ease of doing business,
• ensuring the possibility of working in accordance with education, with remuneration adequate to qualifications not only in major cities but throughout the country,
• reduction of construction costs by eliminating the bureaucracy in housing construction.

3. Smart absorption of immigrants, above all from countries neighbouring Poland, as a result:

• simplification of procedures related to legal employment of foreigners to the highest possible degree,
• creating conditions for residence of immigrant families in Poland,
• creating a fast track to recognise professional qualifications of immigrants,
• introduction of promotional activities, including promotion of Polish for foreigners and Polish language courses,
• creating a transparent procedure for obtaining permanent residence cards for settlement in our country.

The full and unabridged report is available for download at zpp.net.pl (materials).

******

The report was created as part of the “Agenda Poland” project, a joint venture of the Warsaw Enterprise Institute and the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers, whose aim is to prepare a strategy for Poland’s development, systemic solutions, and improvement of the law in selected areas.

 

So far, the following publications were published in the series:

Strategy of legal and institutional competition of Poland

The Polish Security Strategy

Conceptual of a new tax system in the field of direct and indirect taxes. Wages + Taxes –

Measurable justice. Judicial reform project

School for life. Who will pay for our pensions?

Citizens’ pension. Safe old age, higher wages

The draft Constitution of the Republic of Poland

 

Fot. Free-Photos/pixabay.com

Warsaw, 8^th January 2019

 

Positive Plusses, Negative Plusses – summary of Polish legislation 2018

 

In the ranking determining legal acts of the best quality adopted in 2018, the first place was taken by the Minister of Entrepreneurship and Technology Jadwiga Emilewicz. As part of the “Negative Plusses” platform, throughout the entire previous year, we assessed acts of law that became part of the Polish legal system. Each of our assessments was preceded by an analysis of a law in question in terms of its impact on the economy, functioning of the state or personal freedoms. The overall quality of our legislation is at a similar level as it was for 2017.

 

METHODOLOGY

At the moment of its entry into force, an act is assessed on a scale of 1-5.

1. Very harmful: when the law does not have any positive features;
2. Harmful: when the law contains some positive elements, yet in its entirety we evaluate it negatively;
3. Neutral: when there’s an equilibrium between the positive and negative features of the act;
4. Good: when the act goes in the right direction, but it needs to be fine-tuned or has a few shortcomings;
5. Very good: the new act is complete, we have no objections against it.

We assign each of the acts to a specific politician, field or area, and ministry. In individual categories, we calculate the arithmetic average based on all individual assessments.

 

DESCRIPTION OF THE INDEX

Last year, Warsaw Enterprise Institute assessed 61 acts, more than half as many as the year before. However, the average assessment of Polish legislation, which is 3.3, remains unchanged.

In most areas, including the economy or the justice system, there was little legislative improvement. However, a significant drop was noted in case of tax law, where legal acts that are considered to be harmful or very harmful prevail, e.g. the introduction of the third tax threshold in the form of “a solidarity tribute” or the increase in the emissions fee.

Jadwiga Emilewicz, the Polish Minister of Entrepreneurship and Technology, tops the ranking for 2018 with an average of 4.2. It was her ministry that created, among others, the act on the succession of enterprises which facilitates the operations of businesses after the entrepreneur-owner’s death. She also coordinated the completion of legislative works on last year’s act of key significance, the so-called “Constitution for Business”, i.e. the act on entrepreneurial law.

Jan Ardanowski, Poland’s Minister of Agriculture, also deserves recognition. What should be highly appreciated are the facilitations for farmers that he introduced in direct sales or the incentive system for establishing agricultural cooperatives. For the previous year, his ministry received an average equal to that of the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Technology. His predecessor Krzysztof Jurgiel contributed to this assessment as it was during his terms when the act on contracts for harvest-time helpers, recognised as a very good law, was adopted. Andrzej Adamczyk, the Minister of Infrastructure, received the same assessment as Minister Ardanowski. In his case, however, newly introduced provisions of the law still have to translate into effective government action, because they concern future investments: the Central Communication Port and the local government roads fund.

On the completely other side of the scale are Krzysztof Tchórzewski and Henryk Kowalczyk, Ministers of Energy and Environment respectively. The former is responsible, for instance, for the act increasing the emissions fee or the act on freezing electricity prices that was passed at the end of 2018. The latter approved the act that strikes at the civil liberties of hunters and introduces an interventionist wooden house building program.

Other ministers failed to prepare any significant acts of law in the previous year or prepared too few of them to be included in this ranking.

Our assessments show a qualitative difference between laws that were created within the government in relation to those created by the parliament, authored by groups of MPs. All government acts obtained an average of 3.43, while parliamentary acts barely that of 2.9.

On average, the legislative activity of the President of the Republic of Poland was assessed at 3.5. Good acts, like the one that facilitates the recovery of money after an erroneous transfer, combined with worse ones, such as the act on free legal assistance. Last year, one project created as a result of a legislative initiative was also adopted. It was the act limiting trade on Sundays and it received the lowest possible rating in our ranking.

The whole ranking, starting from 2017, is available at www.plusyujemne.pl and is presented in an up-to-date manner on the communication channels of the Warsaw Enterprise Institute as well as of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers.

 

Fot. geralt/pixabay.com

Warsaw, 22^nd January 2019

 

Decreasing support for trade ban

 

“The number of people supporting the Sunday trade ban fell in December by 3 percentage points compared to the results of the November survey and currently amounts to 28%. As many as 71% of Poles do not want politicians to tell them how to spend their weekends. The percentage of complete opponents of limiting trade on Sundays in the December wave is the same as in November – 39% of Poles do not accept this change in any form,” comments professor Dominika Maison. “Aggregated data from both waves show that the Act has more opponents among residents of small and largest cities.”

First and foremost, it is quite noteworthy that the change introduced impacted consumer behaviour of a very limited group of people. Before the restrictions were introduced, 85% of respondents declared they did their shopping on a Sunday, with 78% of respondents doing in spite of the current limitations of trade on Sundays. Therefore, it may be concluded that the change affected only 1 in 14 Poles. This is also due to the nature of the most common purchases made on Sunday – 78% of people declare that they shop for groceries / food, while none of the other retail categories reached the level of 50%.

The results of the research indicate that after the ban on Sunday trade was introduced, over 60% of Poles still do shopping on these days. What has changes are the places where they do their shopping – on the so-called “trade-free Sundays”, these will usually be small stores (78% of respondents) and gas stations (44% of respondents), less often confectioners and bakeries (16%) and kiosks (3%).

• The greater the restrictions, the more opponents of the ban – especially when assessing the solution planned for 2020, it can be observed that the “contra” group is much larger than the “pro” group (54% vs. 32%).
• A group of complete opponents (people who do not accept restrictions in any form) is as large as it was in the first wave of the study and amounts to 39%. More opponents of the introduced changes in Sunday trade are observed among:
  • Residents of small towns (up to 20,000 inhabitants) – it is possible that in smaller locations residents have fewer alternatives to attractions offered by large stores and shopping centres.
  • Inhabitants of big cities (over 500,000 inhabitants) – probably long distances and heavy traffic cause more difficulties in shopping during the week or on Saturdays.
  • People currently working in commerce than Poles who have never worked in this sector – it is possible that for some retail employees, these changes mean a reduction in earning opportunities.

“I think that the percentage of opponents of the trade ban will increase. Winter months are not as inviting to spend time outdoors as summer months,” sums up Cezary Kaźmierczak, president of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers. “We will appeal to the government to lift the ban and introduce two work-free Sundays for employees of all industries, not only trade, in the Labour Code. The current solution is discriminatory. Moreover, Polish trade is being slowly killed, as it is unable to cope with aggressive price promotions of discount stores.”

The second wave of the survey was carried out on a representative sample of Poles with a population of N: 1048 people.

 

22.01.2019 Survey by the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers: Attitudes and opinions regarding the restrictions on Sunday trade – wave 2

 

 

Fot. PhotoMIX-Company/pixabay.com

Warsaw, 20^th December 2018

 

Energy prices threaten the competitiveness of the Polish economy – report by the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers

 

High electricity prices constitute a threat to our economy, and to avoid high price increases in the future, Poland needs a systemic plan for an energy transformation – according to the report by the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers published on 20^th December 2018 under the title “Energy prices threaten the competitiveness of the Polish economy”.

For several weeks now, news services have been almost dominated by reports of rising electricity prices. Public concern is perfectly understandable, because higher energy prices are a problem for both households and Polish companies in terms of their competitiveness of. At the moment, it is difficult to accurately estimate the scale of future increases, which result primarily from the increase in coal prices and CO₂ emission allowances, but without a shade of doubt, the authorities are faced with a serious strategic challenge, especially in the context of growing demand for energy.

“The problem with Polish energy has two dimensions,” claims Cezary Kaźmierczak, President of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers. “First of all, our energy mix is not adjusted to the global climate policy, which we cannot oppose just on ourselves, whatever it is we would like to do. The system of emissions trading is a tool for limiting the role of coal, meanwhile about 80% of electricity produced by us still comes from this raw material. Secondly, our coal-powered energy generating units are outdated, which also translates into a high emission coefficient the Polish power industry.”

Experts of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers emphasise that the increase in electricity prices is a direct consequence of the strong dependence of the Polish economy on electricity produced from coal whereas the EU emissions trading system decreases the profitability of this type of power plants. Pursuant to the above facts, a systemic plan for energy transformation is needed in a strategic perspective, taking into account the substitution of high-emission coal units with gas power plants, wind farms, biomass and biogas units or photovoltaics.

Therefore, in the face of rising energy prices, it is of key importance to plan a long-term transformation of the Polish energy sector from a model based almost entirely on energy coming from coal, towards a mix that takes into account to a much higher degree renewable energy sources and low-emission generation units. Meanwhile, presently, the main idea of the government to fight increasing prices is a compensation program for individual clients and entrepreneurs. As we can read in the report, there is a serious fear that its implementation will only postpone the abrupt increase in electricity prices for all recipients and constitutes “squandering” of funds that could be allocated to investments in renewable energy sources.

“The compensation system is a temporary solution, unreasonable in the long term, because without fundamental changes in the structure of the Polish power industry, price increases will take place anyway,” concludes Cezary Kaźmierczak. “Owing to that, our short-term recommendation, “for right now”, would be to cut down on the levies that condition the price of electricity, for instance, in the form of a reduction in excise tax.”

The authors of the report highlight in its summary the fact that increases in energy prices may lead to a rise in the prices of goods and services, and consequently to inflation. Therefore, an average citizen will feel the results of price increases the most, not only when footing the electricity bill, but also while shopping for groceries. Bearing in mind also the fact that electricity prices determine the operating costs of companies and are an important factor when making decisions about investing in a given country, improving the general condition of the Polish power industry is becoming one of key strategic challenges for the coming years in Poland.

 

20.12.2018 Report of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers: Energy prices threaten the competitiveness of the Polish economy

 

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