“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.”

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.

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 20th December 2018 under the title “Energy prices threaten the competitiveness of the Polish economy”.

“A spectre is haunting Europe. A spectre of a bankrupt state-owned, pay-as-you-go pension system that has reigned for almost an entire century” is how José Piñera begins his book on social insurance.

The Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers has repeatedly emphasised the need for a radical change of the VAT rate matrix. From many expert analyses, including those carried out by the Union itself, as well as from scientific research, it is clear that VAT is one of the most complicated taxes, one causing entrepreneurs the most problems. Testament to it is, among other things, the fact that the National Tax Information is most often asked about the tax on goods and services; from almost 1.5 million replies to taxpayers’ phone inquiries, over 575 thousand concerned VAT.

On 10th December 2018, the President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda, appointed representatives of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers to the Social Dialogue Council. This is the culmination of several years of efforts, aiming primarily at obtaining the status of a representative organisation, which was already achieved in March this year, and then enforcing the right to have representatives appointed to the Council provided for by law.