Poland pleased with budget file in von der Leyen’s proposed commission team

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk expressed his satisfaction with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s decision to assign the highly coveted budget, anti-fraud and public administration portfolio to Polish candidate Piotr Serafin.

On Tuesday, von der Leyen presented her plan for a new Commission. Poland's portfolio comes as no surprise, as Tusk publicly expressed his hope that Serafin, a trusted confidant of his, would get it, while Die Welt also reported that Serafin would get it.

“A strong portfolio for Polish Commissioner Piotr Serafin: budget, public administration and anti-fraud. Or, to put it simpler: money, staff and what we like best,” Tusk wrote after the announcement on X.

Serafin, on the other hand, had fewer words to spare: "Budget. All clear," he wrote on X.

'Dracula in the blood bank'

Tusk's enthusiasm was shared by MEPs from Poland's ruling coalition. Michał Kobosko, of the centrist Poland 2050 (Renew) party, quoted an ironic comment from what he described as another MEP from a net contributor country to the EU budget, saying that putting a Pole in charge of the budget portfolio was "like letting Dracula into the blood bank".

Poland is the biggest recipient of EU funds. In 2023, it will receive €8.2 billion, with Romania and Hungary in second and third place, according to the German Institute for Economic Research.

This is not the first time the country has been entrusted with the budget portfolio in the European Commission. In the second Barroso Commission, Janusz Lewandowski (PO, EPP) was responsible for the budget.

His tenure from 2010 to 2014 put Poland at the forefront of European financial management during negotiations on the 2014-2020 multiannual financial framework, demonstrating the country's ability to handle complex budgetary responsibilities.

"You never step in the same river twice, but you do," Lewandowski wrote on X, quoting a famous Polish proverb. He noted that Poland would again play a key role in the upcoming talks on the next multi-annual budget but expressed confidence that Serafin would be up to the task. "Tough guy, tough portfolio," he wrote.

A trusted confidant of Tusk, Serafin became head of Tusk's cabinet when the latter was appointed president of the European Council and took on the position of director of the EU Council's secretariat-general for transport, telecommunications and energy between 2020 and 2023. For the past few months, he has headed Poland's Permanent Representation to the EU.

Poland deserves more, the opposition says 

On the side of the opposition, Serafin’s nomination was met with scepticism.

“To put it even simpler, fraud is what you like best,” far-right Confederation (ESN) MP Konrad Berkowicz said in a comment to Tusk’s post on X.

Piotr Müller, the recently elected MEP from the conservative PiS (ECR), believes that Poland deserves an even more important file in the new Commission. “Poland needs more than an accountant in the European Commission,” he wrote on X.

He rejected the argument that Serafin, as budget commissioner, would be von der Leyen's right-hand man, pointing out that he would not even be vice-president of the Commission.

So Poland has nothing to celebrate, Müller said, "unless we hear (...) clear statements about a percentage increase in Poland's share of subsidies from the EU budget".

Müller listed industry, energy, the internal market and agriculture as the key portfolios that Poland should have aspired to.

Poland was in charge of agriculture in the first von der Leyen Commission, with the PiS-nominated commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski, who was praised by Polish farmers for defending their interests during the farmers' protests but was criticised in the Commission for siding too much with Warsaw on some contentious issues, such as trade with Ukraine.

In the new Commission, Wojciechowski will be succeeded by Luxembourg’s Christophe Hansen.

Von der Leyen outlines budget reform

In the mission letter to Serafin, von der Leyen said she wanted him to develop “a modern and reinforced EU budget, moving to a policy-based budget from a programme-based budget.”

In the letter, she also outlined what the next multiannual financial framework is likely to look like. It would include a plan for each country on pre-allocated pots, including cohesion and the Common Agricultural Policy, and the European Competitiveness Fund, which would create an investment capacity to support strategic sectors key to EU competitiveness, such as research and innovation.

In addition, von der Leyen tasked Serafin with overhauling external action funding to make it “more impactful and targeted,” as well as better aligned with the EU's strategic interests.

She also wants the Polish commissioner to work on the EU’s new resources and explore new funding sources for the EU’s priorities “as part of a modernised and strengthened revenue system.”

(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | Euractiv.pl)