Poland turned to the veto in Brussels to help Ukraine
On Thursday (15.12.2022) Poland, after the lowest price, was the last EU country to join the quadruple EU settlement from last Monday, which receives effective aid for Ukraine (EUR 18 billion in 2023), approval of the Hungarian KPO, freezing of EUR 6.3 billion under “money for the rule of law” and requiring unanimity of 27 European Union countries for the reform of the OECD on corporate income tax.
The Polish side did not disclose the reason for blocking this package for several dozen hours under the trivial slogans of opposition to the CIT reform.
These four original decisions brought together the government of Viktor Orban in one negotiation package, which had replaced the veto of aid for Ukraine with the EU on the issue of funds, but in this blackmail with vetoes, quite meager results appeared.
After applying the settlement countries with Hungary, the diplomats of all 27 member countries last Monday (12/12/2022) for the Council of the EU (ministers of the 27 EU countries) to approve all decisions under one letter procedure with four votes on these four topics. Such procedures are just a procedure in Brussels, but yesterday the process of this remote access to the entire package began to slow down Poland, after taking into account its problems with the CIT reform.
Polish doubts about the CIT reform
The Czech presidency of the EU Council applied a unanimous function on CIT on Monday, and the Polish ambassador to the EU during a closed office in Brussels said that Polish doubts about CIT could be clarified before proceeding with the letter. But Poland started looking for a breakdown of the package from Wednesday. The remote vote originally sounded on Wednesday at 17, but after winning the Polish app several times, you died at midnight later. – Combining aid for Ukraine with topics as thematically distant as corporate international tax is probably an unnecessary mistake, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said this morning as he entered the EU summit in Brussels.
Poland still supported the EUR 18 billion aid for Ukraine, was in favor of a settlement regarding the funds for Hungary, but did not want to approve the consent to the CIT. The snag is that a large group of other countries, including Germany, France, the Netherlands, were not created to cancel Monday’s, providing ambassadors for the initial package including a common CIT blocked until the beginning of this week only by Orban.
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Poland gave in and on Thursday afternoon, after many hours of negotiating scuffles, supported the entire initial package negotiated with Hungary on Monday after possible negotiations, among others on with the Commission of the Republic.
Relationship with KPO?
The aim of the EU CIT Directive is to implement last year’s OECD agreement on the introduction of the CIT rate for a medium-sized enterprise at the level of 15%. This reform, known as “OECD Pillar II”, aims to increase the global impact by more than $150 billion a year. Poland vetoed this reform until the Polish KPO was approved, and when your objection in June was overruled, then – using this Polish trick – Prime Minister Orban blocked his statement.
Warsaw has proof that it cannot support a CIT review without an “authenticating law” ensuring that the reforms of the world’s standard company audit (“Pillar I” of the OECD agreement) will also be put into effect quickly. – Thank you to the French Presidency. From the beginning, we said that we were ready for other solutions – said Minister Magdalena Rzeczkowska of the June study of the EU Council, which approved the Polish KPO. it turned out that Poland had enough statement by the EU Council on the OECD agreement, which did not require just a month earlier.
What is it really about in Warsaw now with refreshing New problem with CIT? – The most frustrating thing is that the Poles do not give us an effective explanation – one of the Western diplomats in Brussels explains to us today around noon.
Poland and the Balts against loopholes in sanctions against Russia
there are speculations (not officially confirmed by Warsaw) that Poland uses the tools of this pressure to e.g. obtained better sanctions provisions in the ninth package of restrictions against Russia, while Poland and the Baltic states have been in sharp dispute with the EU countries of the West for several days. it’s about, among others for a “legal review” of the previously imposed sanctions, which confirm the correct approach to ports for handling cargoes with Russian food and fertilizers.
Additional European Commission Commission for the company to excrete food and fertilizer outside trade borders for the company going beyond the borders (of this ban), even if Russians are blacklisted with frozen assets in the EU. Polish diplomacy, supported by Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians, ensures that dozens of Russian rich people will be able to circumvent the EU, and perhaps even a very wide one.
A dozen or so minutes after the news about Poland’s service to the “Ukrainian-Hungarian-tax package” in Brussels, a meeting of 27 ambassadors was ordered late tonight to discuss sanctions.