Implementing decision 2020/1353 - Granting of temporary support to Poland to mitigate unemployment risks following the COVID-19 outbreak - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 314/45

On 6 August 2020, Poland requested financial assistance from the Union with a view to complementing its national efforts to address the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak and respond to the socioeconomic consequences of the outbreak for workers and the self-employed.

The COVID-19 outbreak and the extraordinary measures implemented by Poland to contain the outbreak and its socioeconomic and health-related impact are expected to have a dramatic impact on public finances. According to the Commission’s 2020 Spring forecast, Poland was expected to have a general government deficit and debt of 9,5 % and 58,5 % of gross domestic product (GDP) respectively by the end of 2020. According to the Commission’s 2020 Summer interim forecast, Poland’s GDP is projected to decrease by 4,6 % in 2020.

The COVID-19 outbreak has immobilised a substantial part of the labour force in Poland. This has led to a sudden and severe increase in public expenditure in Poland in respect of a reduction in social security contributions for the self-employed, all social cooperatives (regardless of the number of employees) and companies employing up to 50 people, a downtime benefit for the self-employed and those working on civil law contracts, subsidies towards salaries and social security contributions, subsidies to the self-employed without employees and loans convertible into subsidies granted to the self-employed, micro-companies and non-government organisations, as set out in recitals (4) to (8).

More specifically, the ‘Act of 2 March 2020 on specific solutions related to the prevention, counteraction and eradication of COVID-19, other infectious diseases and crisis situations caused by them’ (2), which is referred to in Poland’s request of 6 August 2020, introduced a temporary reduction in social security contributions for the self-employed, all social cooperatives (regardless of the number of employees) and companies employing up to 50 people to protect workplaces in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The reduction applied for the period between March and May 2020. Those employing up to 10 people and, in most cases, self-employed persons, and all social cooperatives (regardless of the number of employees), could benefit from a full reduction, while for the entities employing between 10 and 50 people, the reduction amounted to 50 %. The temporary reduction in social security contributions can be considered to be a similar measure to short-time work schemes, as referred to in Regulation (EU) 2020/672, as it aims at protecting the self-employed from a reduction in or loss of income and, in the case of companies employing up to 50 people and all social cooperatives, it supports those employed by the companies provided that they remain employed until the end of the measure. The temporary reduction in social security contributions results in foregone revenues for the Government, which for the purpose of the implementation of Regulation 2020/672 can be considered equivalent to public expenditure.

Furthermore, the authorities have introduced a downtime benefit for the...