Poland 2016

During 2015, citizens had opportunity twice to exercise their right to elect the authorities at free and fair elections, and political parties to compete freely for their votes. Firstly in May, Poland had presidential elections, and then in October the elections for the bicameral Polish parliament. Andrzej Duda, representative of the Law and Justice (PiS) political party became President after the runoff, thus making a stepping stone for the change of political power in the country. This process was completed with a huge victory of a conservative PiS party, itself winning enough seats in the Sejm - the lower house of parliament - to govern alone for the first time in post-communist history of Poland. Voters had one more opportunity in 2015 to go to the polling stations. Government

Decision making process of all elected authorities in Poland is free from interference by unconstitutional veto players. With the affiliation of around 90% of population, The Roman Catholic Church exercise certain influence in the society and on everyday politics. According to Freedom House 2016 Nations in Transit report, another actor who can affect decisions by some officials, especially now when PiS is in power, is Jaroslaw Kaczynski – chairman of the PiS party and the person who has overwhelming influence on the current President and the Prime Minister. Polish problem of corruption among officials came again on surface in June 2015, when documents on Waitergate scandal leaked from the Prosecutor`s office. Immediately afterwards, three ministers resigned.

Broadcast, printed, radio and online media outlets in Poland enjoy certain degree of freedom. Media scene is highly pluralistic, expressing diverse opinions, but outlets are often politically biased. Large fines for defamation, which are brought against journalists on regular basis, led to higher presence of self-censorship, especially among local media which traditionally have fewer available funds. In June 2015, a journalist was beaten to death. However, police didn’t find a proof of the connection between his work and the attack. The alleged act of de-politicization by the newly elected government, to switch control over public media from the National Broadcasting Council to Ministry of Treasury, was seen as a threat to the freedom of the press in Poland. In protest to that act,

Instead of badly needed reform of judiciary, itself the least reformed part of the system of power in Poland - characterized through dysfunctional regional organization, backlog of cases and political pressures on courts - the new right-wing government which had taken power in autumn 2015 has soon driven the country`s entire constitutional order into crisis. President refused to swear in the judges of the Constitutional Court nominated immediately prior to elections, while the new Parliament elected their replacements. The Parliament and Senate later, in December, passed a new law on organization of the CC, which made it easier for CC judges to be dismissed and envisaged a higher decision-making quorum than required by the Constitution. When the CC proclaimed the law as unconstitutional,

Poland somewhat improved in fighting corruption between 2014 and 2015. In the Transparency International`s Corruption Perception Index 2015 it was ranked as 30th of 168 countries (together with Taiwan). It scored 62. As Freedom House noted, “anticorruption laws are not always effectively implemented, and corruption within the government remains a problem, particularly in public procurement.” Completed corruption cases during the past few years were mainly targeting local politicians, while national ones seemingly enjoyed impunity, even though some of them resigned upon disturbing revelations by the press. Accusations of corruption, alongside purely political motives, led to the change on the top of the country during 2015, whereby both the President and the government majority in the

On the top of policies that jeopardized the independence of the judiciary, pardoned a proven corruption offender from the ranks of anti-corruption apparatus and caused rows with and within the EU, there were serious human rights` setbacks by the new PiS government. They refused the previously agreed inner-EU quota of (5.000) refugees or asylum seekers. They tightened media laws and exercised pressure on media. They withdrew state support to a theater because of the contents of one show. Finally, in April 2016, an initiative was launched to totally ban abortion (atop the anyway very restrictive legislation as of 1993 and the tolerated extra-legal obstacles to it), which soon became a draft bill. That sparked protests by civil society organizations, which would most probably topple the

Property rights are overall secure in Poland, but there are many shortcomings within the system. Court impartiality and low judicial independence remain serious obstacles. Enforcing contracts is a long process due to high number of procedures involved. Resolving insolvency is better organized, providing high recovery rates. Overall, slow and overburdened court procedures are among the negative characteristics of the Polish legal system. Furthermore, there is a significant variation of court-procedure length in different parts of the country. New legislation, which is envisaged to strengthen bankruptcy rules and increase efficiency in the procedures - Bankruptcy Law and Restructuring Law - became effective in early 2016. Civil Procedures Code amendment provides arbitration-friendly

Size of government in Poland is not excessive, with total government spending reaching 41.5% of GDP in 2015, a much lower level than in many EU countries. Although Poland was one of few countries in Europe which did not experience recession during the financial and fiscal crisis, and has recorded solid growth rates - 3.7% in 2015 - high annual deficits have accumulated a substantial amount of public debt, reaching 51.3% of GDP in 2015. Fiscal austerity measures that were implemented have lowered the deficit in order to enable Poland to exit from Excessive Deficit Procedure of the EU in 2015, one year in advance than previously envisaged, but there are warnings that further actions need to be taken, since public expenditures are being expanded and privatization plans have been stalled.

Business regulation in Poland is mostly positively oriented towards entrepreneurial activities. Although starting a business does not require many procedures, it takes a substantial amount of time and incurs high cost, both in necessary fees and minimum paid-in capital. Obtaining a construction permit and getting electricity on the other hand are not expensive, but are burdened with many long procedures. The latter was made more efficient by decreasing delays in application processing. Licensing restrictions in certain service professions are present, lowering competition by providing barriers to entry. Compliance with complicated tax procedures is burdensome, incurring administrative costs. Tax regulations complexity and labour-code rigidity are cited as the two most problematic factors

Freedom of trade is mostly respected in Poland. As one of EU member states, Poland applies its common trade policy. Therefore, overall tariffs are low (simple average tariff is set at 5.47%) and majority of tariffs apply only to agricultural products. Border compliance and documentation are not burdensome due to efficient customs office. However, the process of standardization and certification of the imported goods from non-EU countries is complicated and it incurs costs, posing obstacles to international trade. Good public infrastructure in transportation as well as its geographical location fosters international trade by decreasing freight costs. However, railroad quality is lagging behind roads and ports. Major Polish trade partners are other EU countries, most notably Germany.