By Alan Charlish and Pawel Florkiewicz
WARSAW, March 13 (Reuters) – Poland’s government on Friday pushed ahead with a European Union defence-funding programme despite the president vetoing the scheme, amid a row over debt and the role Brussels should play in the security of the deeply divided country.
Pro-European Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government says the EU’s Security Action for Europe (SAFE) scheme provides cheap financing and is essential to Poland’s security in the face of what it views as a rising threat from Russia.
However, opposition-backed President Karol Nawrocki on Thursday vetoed a bill intended to implement SAFE in Poland, saying the scheme would leave future generations with large debts and allows the EU to infringe on Poland’s sovereignty.
The bill would have created a mechanism to spend the 43.7 billion euros ($50 billion) in EU loans Poland was entitled to under the programme.
“Given the unprecedented and rapid deterioration of security in Europe, Poland must urgently and significantly increase its military investments,” said a government resolution backing the scheme on Friday, which authorised ministers to sign the loan agreements despite the veto.
The head of the president’s chancellery Zbigniew Bogucki accused the government of circumventing the law.
Government ministers, meanwhile, lashed out at Nawrocki’s veto, saying it would delay vital defence investment.
Warsaw is the biggest beneficiary of SAFE but nationalist opposition party Law and Justice (PiS) has labelled it a German plot to meddle in Polish affairs, which would saddle the country with debt and limit its flexibility on arms purchases.
European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said Brussels would not interfere in domestic debates, but that it remained committed to Poland’s plan.
“We need Poland on board for European security,” he said.
Due to the veto, the government will have to use an existing armed forces fund whose rules mean it will be unable to disburse some 7 billion zlotys ($1.87 billion) that had been earmarked for the border guard and the police.
Nawrocki has proposed an alternative bill that would involve using unrealised profits from the rising value of central bank gold reserves to fund defence.
The government rejected this proposal, saying the central bank has not been making a profit in recent years.
($1 = 0.8740 euros)
($1 = 3.7361 zlotys)
(Reporting by Alan Charlish and Pawel Florkiewicz in Warsaw, additioal reporting by Bart Meijer and Andrew Gray in Brussels; Editing by Kate Mayberry, Alexandra Hudson)
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