Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Monday that he will propose someone he is 100% certain of and trusts to lead the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy.
Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz announced Thursday evening in a post on X that she is stepping down from the government, where she served as head of the funds ministry, and as leader of Polska 2050. Asked about her decision on Friday, the prime minister said he has two candidates for her post. He added that both are women and that he will give the name after returning to Poland from his visit to India and Vietnam.
The head of the Polish government was asked again who would replace Pełczyńska-Nałęcz at a Monday briefing in Hanoi. “I have had neither the time nor the opportunity to consult anyone about my plans for this particular ministry, which Ms. Pełczyńska-Nałęcz has left,” Tusk said.
He stressed that Poland is “close to the finish line when it comes to obtaining and settling funds, above all from the National Recovery Plan” (KPO), and that, as he added, Pełczyńska-Nałęcz was the one tasked with getting that job done.
The prime minister also said he would not “publicly criticize” the former minister’s departure. “It wasn’t my decision. I’m not the one who threw her out of her party. Everyone who got to know the minister knows well what happened,” he said.
“And I will propose this ministry to someone I am 100% sure of and trust to properly see this huge project through to the end, because we are talking about billions of euros for Poland, not about some party games,” the head of the government said.
He added that he has two excellent candidates and that one of them will take the post. Tusk said he is “convinced” that the person who takes over the funds ministry “will win everyone’s support” because, as he stressed, both candidates are nonpartisan and superbly prepared for the job.
As head of the funds ministry, Pełczyńska-Nałęcz was tasked with ensuring the proper use of money from the National Recovery Plan. The ministry she led negotiated six revisions of the plan with the European Commission, which made it possible to ease the so-called milestones, meaning the tasks, reforms and investments that Poland committed to carry out in exchange for money from the EU’s Recovery Fund.
On Sept. 30, Pełczyńska-Nałęcz said that the entire pool of funds provided for in the National Recovery Plan would be invested, and that investments already completed account for 1.5% of GDP growth. (Source: PAP)
