OECD Economic Surveys: Poland 2025

Annex B. Progress on past key recommendations

 

Striking a balance in macroeconomic policy
Past recommendation	Policy actions since the 2023 Economic Survey
Ensure that energy-related support measures to households and firms remain temporary and fiscal policy does not add to inflationary pressure. Any future supports should be better targeted to the most vulnerable.	Energy-related support measures for households are being gradually withdrawn although they continue to apply to all citizens. Additional energy support for low-income households has been introduced. Fiscal consolidation has been repeatedly delayed.
Continue to ensure that currently elevated inflation expectations do not become entrenched and stand ready to increase interest rates further if necessary.	Inflation expectations have declined.
Do not extend the blanket mortgage payments relief scheme any further beyond 2023.	The scheme has been extended in 2024.
Continue efforts to support and integrate refugees and prepare in case of a further influx. Ensure burden-sharing of both short- and long-term integration policies across levels of government. Build on disaggregated data to get an accurate picture of the evolving situation, carry out needs assessments and situation reports.	The government provided Ukrainian refugees with access to the labour market and assistance with finding jobs. Organised Polish language training and gave free access to education for Ukrainian children. Provided free healthcare and psychological support. The government continued to monitor the status of Ukrainian refugees. A new migration strategy is being developed with a focus on better integration of migrants into Polish society.
To improve fiscal credibility, consider long-term changes to the numerical fiscal rules, taking into account the outcome of EU governance reforms, and establish an independent fiscal council. In the medium-term, undertake fiscal consolidation. Broaden the revenue base, by reforming or phasing out ineffective and regressive tax expenditures and revising property taxation. On the expenditure side, improve targeting of social supports and conduct a comprehensive spending review.	A new fiscal council will be established in 2026. There has been no fiscal consolidation since 2022. Little action has been taken to broaden the revenue base or improve the targeting of social benefits. The spending review process has been strengthened. Two spending reviews are under way (concerning the Clean Air Programme and long-term care). The draft budget for 2025 plans for a slight improvement in the fiscal balance. A medium-term strategy envisions the pace of consolidation to pick up substantially between 2026 and 2028.
Extend working lives, including by aligning gradually male and female statutory retirement age and increasing it in line with life expectancy gains in good health.	In 2022, income tax was reduced for workers who reach statutory retirement age to encourage them to work longer. No action taken on increasing or aligning male and female statutory retirement ages.
Make the healthcare strategy better integrated across the various actors in the system. Over time, increase the remuneration of health workers.	The salaries of nurses and doctors have substantially increased and become competitive. Coordinated care, which boosts cooperation within healthcare to raise health outcomes and reduce costs, is being rolled out.
Strengthening green and sustainable growth
Implement the updated principles of the energy strategy with an emphasis on accelerating development of renewables, diversifying technologies and improving energy security and efficiency, while minimising the increased reliance on coal in the near term.	The share of renewables in energy production and consumption has increased. District heating is being decarbonised and the installation of more efficient heat pumps has continued.
Expedite and scale-up investments in the electricity grid, while reviewing regulations and other policy constraints hindering further expansion of renewables.	Legislation has been amended to allow for faster deployment of crucial electricity network infrastructure. Investment in energy infrastructure has been lower-than-expected due to the delays in the disbursement of EU Recovery and Resilience Facility funds.
Improve the public investment framework by strengthening project selection, portfolio oversight, maintenance funding and budget comprehensiveness for ongoing and planned investment.	No action taken.
Set out a clear long-term path of carbon pricing. In the medium-term, increase the national emissions fee and eventually align it with the EU ETS.	No action taken.
Develop a comprehensive tool for addressing energy poverty that deals with poorly insulated homes and inefficient heating systems, as well as energy bills.	Electricity prices have been capped, means-tested benefits and a programme for refitting of dwellings with an upfront subsidy for the low income are in place.
Ensure a just transition through well-targeted retraining, a hiring freeze and inter-sectoral upskilling for the hard and lignite coal sectors. Complementary policies are needed for the wider coal value chain.	No action taken.
Mandate companies to implement measures suggested in energy audits with short pay-back, as done in other OECD countries.	No action taken. Policies will be considered as part of the implementation of the EU Energy Efficiency Directive. The Ministry of Climate and Environment is distributing good practices for implementing energy efficiency in SMEs.
Allocate adequate resources to the Energy Regulator Office.	Legislation has been amended to raise financing.
Changing of heating systems to more efficient and less polluting options should go together with thermal renovations. Energy certificates should cover more of the building stock.	EU-funded and national programmes are supporting comprehensive energy efficiency evaluation and upgrades.
Bring forward the planned update of vehicle taxation ensuring that it reflects emissions and environmental impact.	No action taken. Work on updating vehicle taxation to reflect the environmental impact is ongoing.
Reduce regulatory barriers to competition for lawyers, notaries, architects, and engineers as well as in occupational licensing.	No action taken.
Strengthening public integrity to improve investment climate
Building on the previous anti-corruption strategy, strengthen public integrity by delivering on its past priorities, addressing remaining issues and involving the non-governmental sector in the formulation and evaluation of the new strategy.	Several high-level investigations of former public officials have been opened. A revision of the so-called impunity provision has been announced but details have not been made public. The anti-corruption strategy has not been updated.
Make procuring authorities more efficient by faster and less cumbersome bid evaluations and contract awards. Decrease the number of non-open procedures.	A State Purchase Policy has been updated in 2022, a new guide on purchasing strategies for public procurers was published, additional education sessions were organised for all those participating in public procurement, and work on boosting the skills of public procurement specialists and certifying contractors has been started.
Increase corporate fines for foreign bribery offenses and ensure that legal entities can be held accountable without a prior conviction of a natural person.	The Whistleblower Protection Act has been prepared and is pending approval by the President.
Fostering greater adoption of digital technologies in firms
Accelerate the legislative process and conduct 5G auctions in order to speed up the development of a dedicated 5G network.	Poland concluded a 3.6GHz band auction and conducted consultations on the 26GHz band. Legislative work on ensuring cybersecurity is ongoing.
Expand consultancy services that offer expert technical advice to facilitate investment in digital technologies among SMEs.	PARP has expanded its range of services.
Increase direct funding for ICT R&D. Incentivise universities and research institutes to pursue more collaboration with industry when undertaking R&D and strengthen the role of technology transfer and commercialisation efforts.	R&D increased to 1.5% of GDP in 2022 but the share of companies innovating either in terms of product or processes remains well below the EU average. The National Centre for Research and Development and Polish Academy for Enterprise Development, cofinance innovative projects both in the business and academia from research and development to commercialisation phases.
Provide continued financial support to new digital firms including finance and development at a later stage. Create a collateral registry to improve SMEs access to loans.	Publicly financed support for startups has continued. No action taken on the SME collateral registry.
Upgrading skills for a digital transition
Provide ICT equipment in schools and training for VET teachers to teach digital skills. Increase the share of VET programmes that include carefully selected work placements. Further strengthen the involvement of local employers in the development of digital education by expanding their role and representation in subnational councils.	National and regional EFS+ programmes have helped children and youth to develop their basic and advanced skills.
Consider dual and flexible degrees to allow potential students in other disciplines to study ICT. Effectively implement the newly created global immigration programmes to attract more skilled ICT specialists from abroad.	ICT immigration programmes have been implemented in 2020-23.
Continue increasing the number of women studying ICT through targeted awareness campaigns and scholarships.	No action taken.
Expand modular training, making use of recognition of prior learning and micro-credentials. Adopt individual training accounts, making training rights portable from job to job. Promote lifelong learning, particularly among the unemployed and workers on temporary contracts. Expand the use of guidance and counselling and widen the coverage of active labour market policies to include digital skills training. Conduct continued and targeted awareness campaigns to provide information on the benefits of digital skills to adults and SMEs.	An individual training accounts pilot has been prepared for 2025. The Digital Competence Development Programme was adopted in 2023. It will raise digital skills among the population and particularly older people. Public employment offices have better tools to assess young people’s digital competencies and provide training. The PARP academy has continued to expand courses on digital skills and technologies for SMEs.
Provide more flexible and modular training to increase accessibility and take up, including to online courses. Increase the level of management training in public administrations and in numerous government-owned firms.	The Civil Service e-learning system offers managerial courses but it is unclear whether attendance has increased. Digital accessibility training for civil servants was expanded in 2024.
Digital government
Digitalise the remaining government services, increase transparency and boost the use of online public services.
Continue to update and expand available public datasets and encourage more private sector firms to use the data.	New datasets have been added to the public data portal. The Ministry of Digital Affairs has promoted data openness and is increasing data accessibility through API.
Ensure a resilient and robust digital government infrastructure to address increased cyber risks.	Poland has cooperated domestically and internationally to identify, understand and defend against cyber-attacks.