Poland, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway signed agreements for the fourth edition of the Norwegian and EEA Funds for Poland. Our country will receive PLN 4 billion. The event took place on 23 April in Warsaw.

Almost PLN 300 million from the European Funds for a Modern Economy (FENG) programme will be allocated for the strengthening of cooperation between science and business. Today, the Minister of Development Funds and Regional Policy, Pełczyńska-Nałęcz and the Minister of Science and Higher Education, Marcin Kulasek, have signed the Memorandum of Understanding for the implementation of a project that will result, among others, in the effective introduction of the R&D solutions developed in the economy.

In 2025, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) and the Act on Ensuring that Business Entities Meet Accessibility Requirements for Certain Products and Services will come into force. On this occasion, the Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy organised a conference attended by the Deputy Minister of Development Funds and Regional Policy, Jan Szyszko.

The Steering Committee for the implementation of the Security and Defence Fund launched its work. The SDF money shall be allocated for civil protection, critical infrastructure and the modernisation of industry, Minister of Development Funds and Regional Policy, Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz said at the opening meeting of the committee. The adoption of the Act establishing the Fund is expected in the autumn.

Socio-economic and territorial cohesion is of key importance to achieving the EU's goals, including the economic security, resilience, competitiveness as well as environmental and digital transformation, Deputy Minister Jan Szyszko said. The deputy minister of the MDFRP attended a plenary meeting of the European Committee of the Regions in Brussels, focusing on the priorities of the Polish Presidency of the EU Council.

Twenty-two agreements for the total amount of over PLN 13 billion have been signed and announced today in various parts of Poland. It is the highest number of agreements concluded on a single day since the launch of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRP). Due to this support, among others, PGE will finance the expansion and modernisation of electricity grids, and the Maritime Office in Gdynia will adapt the Port of Łeba for the construction and operation of Polish offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea.

The EU faces a number of challenges: the war in Ukraine, increasing the competitiveness, resilience and defence capabilities of the EU. Europe needs to be stronger, more sovereign and more responsible, Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, the Minister of Development Funds and Regional Policy advocated at the General Affairs Council meeting in Brussels. In connection with the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the Minister of Development Funds and Regional Policy chaired a Council meeting on the current and future cohesion policy in a cohesion format.

The Council of Ministers adopted a resolution submitted by the Minister of Development Funds and Regional Policy to re-allocate funds from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRP) to the Security and Defence Fund (SDF). The fund will operate under the NRP and provide financing for, among others, defence-related dual-use investments, the modernisation of the defence industry and the development of innovative defence technologies. Up to PLN 30 billion will be allocated for this purpose.

"We are reallocating £30 billion from the NRP to the Security and Defence Fund. The fund will serve local authorities that need and want to reorient their investment policy towards security, building dual-use infrastructure such as shelters and dual-use roads, very much needed today, especially in eastern Poland," the Minister of Development Funds and Regional Policy Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz announced today.

The NRP will create a new Security and Defence Fund of £30 billion. The fund will be used for dual-use investments. They will include defence research, the production of Polish defence companies.