The world we live in today and the challenges Europe faces require stronger defence and an increased competitiveness of the Old Continent. 

These are the purposes for which we should allocate the funds we will manage to save when implementing the NRP. There are investments in the NRP for Poland, as well as for other Member States, that have been implemented at a lower cost. In the Polish NRP, one of these is the Green Urban Transformation instrument. These are preferential loans worth a total of PLN 40 billion that local authorities can use for green investments. Of this amount, Poland could redirect around PLN 20 billion of savings outside the NRP to arms investments once the full range of investments agreed with the European Commission has been implemented,

announced the Minister of Funds and Regional Policy, Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz.

Funds from green investments for defence

The indicator that Poland has agreed with the European Commission for the implementation of the Green Urban Transformation instrument relates to the number of contracts signed for local government investments.

The concept was that these contracts would be fewer, but large. It turned out that the demand from local authorities was for many smaller contracts. We have almost completed this indicator by allocating part of the available PLN 40 billion. Of course, this instrument is still available to local authorities, but it is already apparent that it will be possible to use around PLN 20 billion of these preferential loans in other ways, without detriment to this project,

explains Minister Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz.

Europe thrives when it is under the most pressure. This is one of those moments in history for the European Union when we need to invest more and better in our defence and competitiveness and in the development of Polish and European industry,

said Deputy Minister for Development Funds and Regional Policy Jan Szyszko.

The Green Urban Transformation Facility is a programme to support investment in cities. It provides funds under the National Recovery Plan that local authorities can use for green investments in the form of preferential loans. They have a total budget of PLN 40 billion.