Challenges for the new ministry. “The biggest problem of the Polish economy is the energy transformation”

During the election campaign, the Prime Minister Donald Tusk he repeatedly promised that a ministry of industry would be established in Katowice. On Friday, December 8, he repeated this promise and revealed who would take over.

– As you know, the Ministry of Industry is being established in Katowice. Professor Marzena Czarnecka is responsible for the construction of this ministry. This was my commitment and it will be fulfilled, said Donald Tusk during Friday’s briefing in the Senate. – I do not hide the fact that the intention to have the Ministry of Industry in Katowice results from a deep belief that Silesia has all these hopes and all these problems and threats that need to be treated interdisciplinary – he added.

You can read more in: She will lead the new ministry. The headquarters of the ministry outside Warsaw

Janusz Steinhoff, former deputy prime minister and minister of economy in Jerzy Buzek’s government, in a conversation with Jerzy Korczyński, said that “the location of the ministry does not determine anything, what matters is the competences and the tasks that the ministry is supposed to perform.” When asked whether he did not consider locating his headquarters in Silesia to be a “PR stunt”, he replied that it was rather a “nod to the local community”.

– However, I have said many times that what Silesia needs most is decentralization of the state and increased competences of local government at the voivodeship level, but also at the poviat level. Silesia needs greater independence, just like other regions of our country. This is why Jerzy Buzek’s government introduced local government reform to increase these competences, including those regarding the decentralization of public finances, at the regional level – said the former Minister of Economy.

Steinhoff pointed out that the new ministry “can be created when the law on state administration departments is adopted.” He reminded that currently there is no such department as industry.

– It was liquidated in 1997, the Ministry of Economy was created then, and therefore, if Prime Minister Tusk wants to create a Ministry of Industry in Silesia, he must change the Act on Departments, which I am strongly in favor of, because this ministry must operate based on the law – he pointed.

Steinhoff pointed out that the issue of competences of the new ministry is also important. Will it have regulatory functions or ownership functions?

– Because you can’t combine them. If, as I hear, it will be a branch of the Ministry of State Assets, it means that part of this ministry’s ownership functions will be separated. However, personally, I dream of a ministry that will supervise and generate new energy transformation programs – he said.

The former deputy prime minister emphasized that “the situation in the mining and energy sectors are interconnected issues. We must adapt the pace of our restructuring in the mining industry to changes in the Polish energy industry.” However, he emphasized again that “ownership functions and state regulatory functions cannot be combined.”

– We have organized our country in such a way that there are different entities operating, with different ownership structures, and the state should never act as a regulator and owner together. I also support a ministry that would address the biggest problem of the Polish economy, i.e. energy transformation. If we leave the energy sector as it is now, in 20 or 10 years our economy, especially the energy-intensive part of it, will be absolutely unconventional – he warned.

Steinhoff admitted that the energy transformation is associated with closing and shutting down mines. However, this is the task of corporate supervision, “or in other words, the current ministry of state assets.”

– However, the agricultural restructuring program negotiated with social partners by the previous government requires the approval of the European Commission, because the implementation of this program involves granting public aid. We need to obtain this acceptance as soon as possible, but I believe that we need to conduct a dialogue with social partners, but also firmly defend economic rights. Mining must be well managed, and it has been poorly managed in recent years, he said.

According to Janusz Steinhoff, the problem of mining is supervision. He emphasized that “it should be staffed by people who know what they are doing. This means that these competence criteria should be taken into account in the personnel policy.”

– You cannot deny the laws of economics, you cannot allow a situation in which trade unionists are often more competent than representatives of the state administration in discussions. This needs to be resolutely put on its feet, he stressed.

In response to the comment that jokes are common that “the Ministry of Mining is in Katowice at Floriana 7, where the trade unions are,” he admitted that he also had the impression that the trade unionists had excessive power.

– However, the government should talk to social partners, and it should absolutely not delegate to these social partners decisions that belong to the state administration – he noted. – Let us remember that public funds flow to the mining industry, i.e. funds of Polish taxpayers, and they must be spent rationally. Moreover, the financial condition of one or another coal company must be related to employee salaries, and so on and so forth. All this needs to be put back on its feet, just like it happened 15, 20 years ago, and then the period of populism began, then the period of postponing difficult problems indefinitely began, and the effects are now visible on an ongoing basis – he concluded.