Autor: FWG
On July 8, the liberal Nowoczesna Party held its National Convention, where election program regarding the economy was discussed. Marek Tatala, CEO of the Economic Freedom Foundation, spoke on a panel as one of the experts.
The highlight of the event was the announcement of the party’s economic program. This was followed by two panels, one of which featured the EFF Vice President along with entrepreneur Joanna Czerska-Thomas, Dr. Bartlomiej Gabrys – assistant professor in the Department of Entrepreneurship at the University of Economics in Katowice, and Andrzej Domanski – chief economist at the Civic Institute, a think-tank of Civil Platform political party. It was an opportunity to evaluate the proposed solutions and identify the most important priorities in reforming the economy.
Marek Tatala stressed the importance of economic freedom. He referred to data from the Canadian Fraser Institute, according to which Poland ranks 26th in the EU in terms of economic freedom. ”Let me remind you that there are 27 countries in the European Union, and only Greece is worse in this respect,” the economist noted. He also emphasized that although economic freedom is demonized by some people, the countries at the top of economic freedom rankings are often countries to which Poles have been emigrating in search for better jobs and opportunities. ”These include Ireland and the Scandinavian countries. Are these countries where the quality of life is lower? No,” he said.
Commenting on the last years of economic policy in Poland, Tatala pointed out that those in power have built an atmosphere of instability and fear. ”Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki promised on PowerPoint slides that Poland’s investment rate would be 25% in relation to GDP. Many experts and organizations had already shown that Poland’s problem is under-investment. The investment rate was too low even before 2015, so it should have been raised. Instead, it turned out that PiS governance led to a decline, and Polish and foreign companies lost confidence in the stability of the legal and tax system,” he noted. The EFF Vice President pointed to the restoration of the rule of law as one of the first things to be fixed, recalling that this would trigger funds from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, as well as encourage investment in Poland.
In his speech on the list of necessary changes in the economy, Marek Tatala also pointed to the complexity of the tax system. ”In recent years, we have seen a further complication of this system. Many sectoral taxes were introduced, and there were also attempts to introduce the Polish Deal [big tax reform proposed by the Law and Justice party] – later withdrawing from parts of it,” he enumerated. According to the economist, the tax rates are not in the first place among the aspects that entrepreneurs complain about. The first thing is precisely the complexity of the system and the difficulty of accounting for taxes. ”Such poor organization additionally causes a huge amount of work for the public administration, which is thus forced to treat some entrepreneurs as criminals, although they should be treated as partners,” he added.
Speaking about long-term plans for economic policy in Poland, Marek Tatala advised the politicians to take a specific direction, which could be Poland’s accession to the eurozone. As he argued, although the process itself is long, the legal and economic changes necessary for introduction of a common currency are a good in themselves. The economist recalled the convergence criteria which are necessary to meet when planning to adopt the euro: ”We must lower inflation, balance the public finances, control the public debt, and restore the rule of law. If only for these aspects, it is worth preparing Poland for this step,” he explained. Currently, Poland meets almost none of these criteria, and according to the expert, meeting them would lead to lower prices in stores, cheaper loans and an end to excessive debt at the expense of future generations. ”It is important for the introduction of liberal reforms to set a long-term goal. We had the goal of joining the West in 1989 – ticked off. We had the goal of joining NATO – ticked off. We had the goal of joining the European Union – ticked off. There remains a fourth goal – and to reach it, we can build a reform agenda for a better economy in Poland,” the economist concluded.
EFF’s referendum campaign has been launched