Poland

Poland’s foreign minister on Monday signed an official note to Germany requesting the payment of about $1.3 trillion in reparations for the damage incurred by occupying Nazi Germans during World War II, the Associated Press reported. Zbigniew Rau said the note will be handed to Germany’s Foreign Ministry. The signing comes on the eve of Rau’s meeting in Warsaw with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who will attend a security conference.

Brussels is unlikely to back down on its demand that Poland respect the rule of law to receive post-pandemic recovery funds, officials said, despite threats from Warsaw that it could block decision-making within the European Union, Reuters reported. Poland would be eligible for 24 billion euros in grants and 11.5 billion in very cheap loans from the fund, designed to help member states become greener and more digitalised as their economies recover.

Poland's central bank raised its main interest rate by 50 basis points to 6.50% on Thursday, it said, delivering a hike below analysts' estimates as it balances the risks of an economic slowdown against surging inflation, Reuters reported. Some economists think Poland could tip into technical recession this year, but with inflation running hot most say further tightening is inescapable. "I believe that it is a very sensible decision from the MPC," said Piotr Bujak, chief economist at PKO BP.

Polish President Andrzej Duda has signed into law regulations replacing the controversial body disciplining judges with a new accountability panel in the hope it will persuade the European Union to release billions of euros in pandemic funds frozen over Poland’s political control of the judiciary, the Associated Press reported. Duda signed the changes into law late Monday, his office said.

Polish central bank Governor Adam Glapinski won parliamentary approval for a second, six-year term despite public anger over surging inflation and rapidly rising interest rates that is starting to chip away at the government’s popularity, Bloomberg News reported. The vote turned into a test of strength for the ruling coalition, which had struggled to secure sufficient support for Glapinski since his nomination by President Andrzej Duda in late January.

Poland urged its European Union partners on Monday to unite and impose sweeping sanctions on Russia’s oil and natural gas sectors over the war in Ukraine, and not to cave in to pressure to pay for their gas in Russian rubles, the Associated Press reported. The appeal came as EU ministers met in Brussels to discuss their response to Russia’s decision last week to cut gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland. Energy giant Gazprom says the two countries failed to pay their bills in April. “We will call for immediate sanctions on Russian oil and gas.

Russia will cut off the gas to Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday in a major escalation in the standoff between Moscow and Europe over energy supplies and the war in Ukraine, Bloomberg News reported. Moscow is making good on a threat to halt gas supplies to countries that refuse President Vladimir Putin’s new demand to pay for the fuel in rubles. The European Union has rejected the demand in principle but now payment deadlines are starting to fall due, governments across Europe need to decide whether to accept Putin’s terms or lose crucial supplies -- and run the risk of energy rationing.

Poland is imposing sanctions on 50 Russian oligarchs and companies, the interior minister said on Tuesday, as it seeks to increase pressure on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reported. Poland this month passed a law allowing it to freeze the assets of Russian entities and ban imports of coal from Russia, above and beyond sanctions imposed jointly by European Union countries.

Europe’s top court ruled on Wednesday that the European Union could withhold money for member countries that have curtailed the independence of their democratic institutions, marking a potentially costly defeat for Hungary and Poland, the Wall Street Journal reported. The ruling, by the EU’s European Court of Justice, gives the bloc more power to clamp down on governments accused of purging their judiciary or weakening anti-corruption watchdog agencies.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Tuesday announced a second round of sales tax cuts as part of the right-wing government’s efforts to fight inflation after it reached a 21-year high last month, the Associated Press reported. Morawiecki blamed surging consumer prices on high energy costs, saying they are the result of Russian gas prices and the European Union’s policy on greenhouse gas emissions.