The Security Action for Europe (SAFE) instrument is a 2025 EU initiative providing up to €150 billion in loans for member states to boost defense procurement, focusing on ammunition, missiles, and critical infrastructure. - That sounds great, but reality is far from that.
Przemysław Wipler (Confederation) revealed the details of a parliamentary defense committee meeting devoted to the SAFE program.
Wipler questioned, among others, earlier declarations by the Minister of National Defense, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, that 80 percent of the funds would go to Polish companies.
According to the MP, the beneficiaries are "Polish" companies that are local extensions of the German giant Rheinmetall and Polish voters do not have full knowledge of what exactly the SAFE money will be spent on.
He emphasized that members of the National Defense Committee, on which he sits, were only given the opportunity to review the list of bills two days before the meeting. The document, comprising several hundred pages of technical nature in English, was made available to 52 parliamentarians in a single copy. Wipler pointed out that only a few were able to thoroughly analyze its content, as reading the entire document took several hours.
PiS senator Wojciech Skurkiewicz made this comments on the Senate floor:
You have prepared a document, which I have reviewed. A very important, classified document, which five senators have reviewed. I am surprised that a hundred people will vote for a document reviewed by five senators. Three members of the National Defense Committee, one of the Public Finance Committee members, and Senator Kwiatkowski. Do you know what you will vote for? Does the House know what it will vote for?
On top of that the government treats any criticism of the SAFE program as a pro-Russian treasonous behavior.
- Based on reporting by Niezalezna and Wpolityce.
