During the first day of the session, the Sejm passed the state budget for 2019 with a maximum deficit of PLN 28.5 billion. The session began with a minute of silence in memory of the late Mayor of Gdansk, Pawel Adamowicz.
The new budget is expected to maintain the sustainability of public finances while promoting economic growth and solidarity-based social policies.
The revenue side includes the introduction of a new, 9 percent CIT rate for small and medium-sized businesses. On the expenditure side, the bill provides funding for the government's priority tasks, including the continuation of programs "Family 500 plus", "Good start", an increase in wages for employees in the public sector, an increase in social pensions, the valorization of pensions, free medicines for senior citizens and a further increase in defence spending. It is planned that in 2019, the state budget revenues will amount to 388 billion 294 million 520 thousand zlotys, while expenditures will amount to 416 billion 794 million 520 thousand zlotys. It has also been predicted that GDP will grow by 3.8 percent, and inflation will not exceed 2.3 percent. The deficit of the public finance sector is to be at the level of 1.7 percent.
During the second day of the meeting, a resolution was passed to honor 100th Anniversary of the Inauguration of the Legislative Sejm "We consider the convocation of the Parliament as the ultimate symbol of regaining independence and the resurrection of the republican tradition after 123 years of partitions. The culmination of the work of the Legislative Sejm was the passing of the Act of 17 March 1921 - the Constitution of the Republic of Poland - the first modern Polish constitution, which granted supreme power to the Nation and introduced an egalitarian system of a democratic republic". - reads the text of the resolution adopted by acclamation. Members commemorated U.S. President Thomas Woodrow Wilson. The resolution emphasized that President Wilson was a person of particular merit for Polish independence. "In his address to the U.S. Congress he presented a peace program, postulating in paragraph 13 the creation of an independent Polish state. He strengthened the friendship between the Polish and American nations, referring to the values that unite us: the unquestionable right of nations to self-determination, freedom and equality," reads the text of the document.
A resolution was also passed to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Association of Polish Geodesists, the first reading of the draft was held Law on Łukasiewicz Research Network and dperchance election of a new member of the State Tribunal - Maciej Prostko.
In addition, deputies amended law on foreignerswhich provides that non-EU citizens will be able to obtain a temporary residence permit in Poland as part of an intra-corporate transfer from another non-EU country.
An amendment was adopted Industrial Property Law resulting from the need to implement Directive (EU) 2015/2436 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2015, which aims to establish a lasting and complementary coexistence of the Community trademark and national trademark protection systems.
In the amendment Payment Act under direct support schemes extended to 2019 the solution applied in 2018 to allow farmers applying for direct payments or area payments under the Rural Development Programme (RDP) to submit, instead of an application for these payments, a declaration in which they confirm that there have been no changes compared to the previous year's application.
The Sejm, while adopting the amendment Act on the Bank Guarantee Fund, deposit guarantee scheme and forced restructuring, adopted amendments to streamline the forced restructuring process, in particular with respect to carrying out bail-ins as part of the process.
Members also changed gambling act by extending a catalog of purposes for which the resources of the Fund for Physical Culture Development may be used to include expenditures supporting the development of social tourism.
The Sejm accepted the Senate's amendments to Act on the Future Industry Platform Foundation. The bill will now go to the President.