Monthly summary of key policy developments in Poland

1. DECEMBER

2. Welcome to the newest edition of MSLGROUP’s
Warsaw Insight. We present this to you via the
concept that additional knowledge and insight
about the legislative, regulatory, and leadership
changes in the Polish government and Europe-an
Union is worth having. This newsletter is not
meant to be exhaustive. Instead, it seeks to pro-vide
summary and updates affecting the market
and thus, your business. We generate this infor-mation
via our daily work at MSLGROUP and feel
that such information has a value to our clients
and the market.
For MSLGROUP, understanding the markets
within which we operate is a guiding principle.
Therefore, we believe that our Warsaw Insight
will provide you with a valuable source of knowl-edge,
information, and news. We present the
Warsaw Insight to you with hope that it meets
your expectations.
If you would like additional information regard-ing
our services, we would be more than happy
to talk to you.
Łukasz Jachowicz,
Head of Public Affairs
MSLGROUP Poland
lukasz.jachowicz@mslgroup.com
@ljachowicz
The recent local elections resulted in major
shift in Polish public debate. At the elections
day, the major victory of the main opposition
party was announced (based on exit polls). Due
to technical difficulties, it took a week to an-nounce
official results - and the expected vic-tory
of Law and Justice (PiS) was not so big
anymore. Additionally, due to low coalition ca-pabilities
of Law and Justice, PiS was able to
get the power only in one voivodeship - in Pod-karpackie
region - and no major city. The rest
of regions is dominated by the coalition of Civic
Platform (PO) and Peasants’ Party (PSL).
The final result of the vote for members of local
parliaments is as follows:
Law and Justice (PiS) - 26.85% (171 seats) Civ-ic
Platform (PO) - 26.36% (179 seats) Peasant’s
Party (PSL) - 26.68% (157 seats) The Left (SLD)
- 8,78% (28 seats)
The second left party, Janusz Palikot’s Your Move
(TR) and the right-wing Janusz Korwin Mikke’s
KNP didn’t get any places in local parliaments.
Due to differences in sizes of local parliaments
in various regions, the number of seats taken by
Civic Platform is bigger that the number of the
winning Law and Justice.
No mainstream political party has visible major-ity
in local authorities (except for 16 local par-liaments).
81% of executive power is in hands of
local committees, not affiliated with any party.
As a result of prolonging vote counting and a dif-ference
between exit polls and the final results,
the chief of PiS accused the ruling coalition of
ballot rigging and called its supporters to march
that will take place on December 13th, the an-niversary
of the 1981 communist martial law.
Local vs parliamentary
The strong position of Peasants’ Party (PSL) -
and therefore a good result of the PO-PSL
VICTORY OF OPPOSITION, POWER OF CO-ALITION

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The General Inspector for Personal Data Protec-tion,
Dr. Wojciech Rafał Wiewiórowski submitted
his resignation. It is associated with the adoption
of European Data Protection Deputy Supervisor
post in Brussels.
November 28
Council of Ministers appointed Wojciech Kowal-czyk
as government representative responsible
for restructuring the coal mining industry (with
the rank of Secretary of State in the Ministry of
Economy). His most important task will be to
prepare concept of the mining industry and the
coordination and monitoring activities related to
the transformation. Wojciech Kowalczyk was as-sociated
with the financial market, as of 2012,
he was Secretary of State in the Ministry of Fi-nance
is responsible for the supervision of finan-cial
market and financial institutions. Since June
2014, he served as undersecretary of the Ministry
of Treasury.
November 18
Tomasz Orłowski was dismissed from the position
of Deputy Minister for Eastern affairs at the For-eign
Ministry.
November 27
coalition - is not necessary to be repeated in par-liamentary
elections. The history of previous elec-tions
indicated that the PSL has always a relative-ly
good position in local elections that does not
directly converts to the good result in following
parliamentary elections. PSL, as one of most active
players on local ground, has a very strong position
in local administration - when people generally
vote for people they know. The situation is differ-ent
in parliamentary elections, when most of can-didates
with the biggest chance of winning (that is
- with first positions on voting lists) are either peo-ple
from “central politics” or complete outsiders.
Moreover, the profile of typical local voter differs
from the typical voter in parliamentary elections.
The very weak result of SLD (the post-communist
party) is a major warning signal for the party that
they are too close to the ruling Civic Platform.
Many months of good relations between PO and
SLD resulted in switching former voters of SLD to
PO or abstaining during the elections. In effect,
the first steps of SLD’s leader (recently expected
to join PO-PSL coalition next year) after the elec-tions
were the meeting with Jarosław Kaczyński
of Law and Justice. The meeting was received
very badly by SLD’s voters and further decreased
the support for the party.
Newest polls
Results of the IBRiS poll after local elections: Civ-ic
Platform (35%), Law and Justice (30%), Peas-ant’s
Party (10%), The Left (8%), Korwin-Mikke’s
New Right (5%).

4. We support the extension of the Energy Charter
Treaty to countries in Asia and Africa, and the con-struction
of energy transport corridors - said Dep-uty
Minister Andrzej Dycha at the 25th meeting
of the Conference of the Energy Charter Treaty,
which took place on 26-27 November 2014. In the
capital of Kazakhstan - Astana.
November 27
After a 4 year break in activity Polish-Belarusian
committee for energy and economic cooperation
resumed work within their development groups.
November 21
Prosumers will get 100% price of energy sold to
network - provides a preliminary agreement be-tween
MPs and the government. This and several
other amendments are included in the draft law
on renewable energy.
November 21
The work on the Polish Energy Policy until 2050
will be soon finished. However, it will be subject
to constant amendments, so as to reflect changes
in markets, new raw materials, and technologies
- said Deputy Prime Minister Janusz Piechociński
during the inauguration of the twentieth EuroPow-er
energy conference.
November 19
The amendment on monitoring and controlling
the quality of fuels came into force. With the new
solutions it will be easier to check the quality of
imported coal for the Polish market. November 14
Parliament adopted the amendment to the Energy
Law, introducing licenses for trading of coal from
abroad.
November 7
French Minister of Defense declared the deploy-ment
of armored company for exercise, which will
take place in Poland. This will be another contri-bution
in recent times; French soldiers previously
attended the Exercise Steadfast Jazz or Baltic Air
Policing mission.
November 25
Armament Inspectorate reported that, at the
request of two participants in the proceedings
concerning the acquisition of 70 multi-role heli-copters
for the Armed Forces, the deadline for
submission of tenders had been changed from
28.11.2014 r. to 30.12.2014 r.
November 24
In the presence of the Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz
and Minister of National Defence Tomasz Siemo-niak,
a contract for the supply of tank ammuni-
On 26-27 of November the director of the Nation-al
Center for Cryptology gen. Krzysztof Bondaryk
resided in Turkey as part of the Polish-Turkish
consultations on cyber defense issues and cryp-tology.
November 28
Andrzej Halicki and CEO of Polish Television Ju-liusz
Braun signed a two-year deal, which will in-troduce
the Regional Warning System (RSO). New
system allows to inform anyone with a mobile
phone or TV about the potential risks and natural
disasters.
November 13
Cybersecurity of government, protection of coun-tries
and entities against cyber threats, economic
security, as well as the protection of information,
are just some of the topics that were discussed
during the Second International Conference and
Exhibition “threats in cyberspace - security be-yond
the borders”.
November 6

5. ammunition to the Polish army, was signed in Ra-dom.
November 12
The Belvedere held a ceremony, during which Pol-ish
President Bronisław Komorowski has approved
the National Security Strategy of Poland.
November 5
Polish pension system and how it should be de-signed
to ensure a secure future? These questions
were being discussed during the Insurance Con-ference,
organized by the students of the Warsaw
School of Economics. Izabela Leszczyna, Deputy
Minister of Finance took part in the debate.
November 28
From September 22nd 2014, Poland’s western and
Lithuanian border controls regarding fuel tanks
entering the cou The general clause against tax
avoidance.
The clause is legal solution applied to taxpayers
making fictitious economic activities and create
artificial legal structures that bring significant tax
benefits. This is one of particular importance to
the changes envisaged in the draft amendment to
the Act - Tax Ordinance.
November 27
The Ministry of Finance held inaugural meeting of
the Consultative Tax Law Council, on which the
Secretary of State Janusz Cichoń, on behalf of the
Minister of Finance Mateusz Szczurek handed acts
of appointment to the President and the members
of the Council.
November 26
Ministry of Finance informed that the risk anal-ysis
carried out by the tax service, confirmed by
the results of audit procedures, indicates that the
market which is particularly vulnerable to avoid-ing
undue payment or reimbursement of VAT is the
liquid fuels trade.
November 13
The next session of Sejm (Lower House of Parliament) will be held on the 16th,
17th& 18th of December 2014.
The next session of Senate will be held on the 17th, 18th of December.
16
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TUE
DEC
WED

6. MSLGROUP is one of the oldest public relations agencies on the Polish market. Every day,
our team provides companies, organizations and institutions with advice regarding their rep-utation
and image. We are close to business and we perfectly know present communication
challenges. Our rich output and highest quality of services won us Impactor 2010 and 2011
awards for the Agency of the Year.
We are part of the Publicis Groupe – third largest global marketing communication network
offering services in the fields of public relations, public affairs, Internet and social media
communication, corporate communication and event marketing. MSLGROUP has offices in
over 80 countries, including partner agencies. It works on the territory of America, Central
and Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia. MSLGROUP consists of market leading corporate and fi-nancial
communications agencies including Kekst & Company, JKL, QORVIS, CNC and Publicis
Consultants, as well as digital marketing experts and design agency, SAS.
We perceive public affairs activities as a complex communication challenge. We know that
nowadays decisions are made not only in the privacy of ministerial offices, and their final
shape is largely shaped by, for example, grassroots civil initiatives or social media.
For each client we develop a comprehensive tailored strategy, adapted to his needs, expec-tations
and capacities. Among others, our activities include lobbing, media relations and
activities in electronic media. Their purpose is to shape public opinion, attract attention to
a specific issue, promote certain law regulations, build reputation and solve crisis situations.
High ethical standards underlie all our activities. We are entered as a professional body en-gaged
in lobbying activities in the register of the Ministry of Interior and Administration. We
act accordingly to the Code of Good Practices of the Polish Public Relations Consultancies
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In the frame of the Public Affairs we offer the following services:
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• Polish and EU legislative process monitoring,
Copyright (c) by MSLGROUP Poland Sp. z o.o. 2014
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CONTACT:
CEO Corporate & Financial Communications
Paweł Tomczuk
Tel. +48 600 489 609
e: pawel.tomczuk@mslgroup.com
Head of Public Affairs
Łukasz Jachowicz
Tel. +48 601 416 560
e: lukasz.jachowicz@mslgroup.com
Governmental Affairs Practice Leader
Małgorzata Dworzynska
Tel. +48 605 296 457
e: malgorzata.dworzynska@mslgroup.com
Associate Public Affairs
Jakub Olek
Tel. +48 606 319 500
e: jakub.olek@mslgroup.com