{"id":401,"date":"2026-04-11T06:14:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T06:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/401\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T06:14:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T06:14:31","slug":"polands-tusk-vows-to-use-eu-defense-loans-despite-presidential-veto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/401\/","title":{"rendered":"Poland’s Tusk vows to use EU defense loans despite presidential veto"},"content":{"rendered":"

WARSAW, Poland (AP) \u2014 Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk<\/a> vowed on Friday to find ways to tap into 43.7 billion euros ($50.1 billion) in defense loans from the European Union despite a veto by the country\u2019s president against a law enabling access to the funds.<\/p>\n

Poland was set to be the largest beneficiary of the EU\u2019s 150 billion-euro Security Action for Europe initiative, or SAFE, which is designed to boost Europe\u2019s defense readiness at a time when the U.S. has been diminishing its role in the continent\u2019s security. <\/p>\n

But President Karol Nawrocki, who has positioned himself as a main opponent of Tusk, said Thursday he is vetoing the legislation allowing Poland to access the EU defense loans.<\/p>\n

\u201cPoland is in shock,\u201d Tusk said Friday. \u201cPeople are wondering if this is treason, the work of lobbyists, or a lack of common sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tusk said the presidential veto will not prevent the Polish government from taking advantage of the defense funds, but \u201cit will be more difficult, sometimes slower, and it will take much more effort to convince everyone involved in this project.\u201d<\/p>\n

A European Commission spokesman said on Friday that the EU was determined to continue implementing the plans it had made with Poland \u201cwithout delay.\u201d An advance payment could be made as early as April, he said. <\/p>\n

Successive Polish governments have boosted the country\u2019s defense spending since Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine in 2022. But while Tusk\u2019s liberal government wants to coordinate efforts with the EU, the nationalist Nawrocki has proven more euro-skeptic and maintained a friendlier rapport<\/a> with the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

Nawrocki argues that Poland\u2019s participation in SAFE will indebt Poles and increase the country\u2019s dependency on Germany. <\/p>\n

On Tuesday, he proposed an alternative draft law<\/a> suggesting national resources that could be used instead of European loans to pay for further investments in defense. Tusk has dismissed that option as unrealistic. <\/p>\n

The U.S. has also openly criticized SAFE.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States has expressed concerns about how EU defense initiatives like Security Action for Europe and the European Defense Industry Program restrict market access for American companies,\u201d Andrew Puzder, the U.S. ambassador to the EU, and Matthew Whitaker, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, wrote in an opinion piece published in February by Politico Europe.<\/p>\n

Such European programs \u201cundermine collective defense\u201d by limiting competition, stifling innovation and depriving U.S. companies of necessary orders, they wrote. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WARSAW, Poland (AP) \u2014 Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk vowed on Friday to find ways to tap into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[480,451,64,74,75,329,484,483,482,478,9,479,122,481,331],"class_list":{"0":"post-401","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-donald-tusk","8":"tag-andrew-puzder","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-donald-tusk","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european-union","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-legislation","15":"tag-lobbying","16":"tag-matthew-whitaker","17":"tag-military-and-defense","18":"tag-poland","19":"tag-poland-government","20":"tag-politics","21":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","22":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}