A few weeks ago, the Polish Craft Association (ZRP) raised the alarm that this key trade mark may cease to exist as early as next year. Reason? Government savings. The cuts were supposed to affect him first, because the money for the Polish Craft Incubator is allocated… from the pool for the development of civil society under the National Institute of Freedom (NIW).
A program worth PLN 10 million designed by Mateusz Morawiecki's government in 2021 has now not received its pool of funds for the next year for a long time. Although other NIW initiatives have already had their own regulations and budgets. Hence the intervention of ZRP. At the beginning of November, NIW published information about recruitment and training webinars. There was no craft program on the list.
“Despite official announcements during the June meeting of the Steering and Monitoring Committee of the Program about its continuation in 2026, no consultations on the Competition Regulations have been held to date, which makes its announcement impossible. (…) Closing the program will undermine the crafts' trust in public institutions” wrote the Association of Polish Craftsmen in an appeal of October 31.
According to the previous team's assumption, the program was to last until the end of the decade. When it was established, the state committed to donate PLN 10 million annually for this purpose. Meanwhile, it was not supposed to last even until the next year. Although this is a relatively small amount in the scale of the budget and even similar programs, it turns out that there could be a lack of money.
The government agrees to the appeal. However, there is money
— During work at the government stage regarding the design of the state budget, the Minister of Finance indicated quite limited spending limits, exactly 10%, compared to what is being implemented this year. This was the general spending limit for the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, where one of the entities supervised is the National Freedom Institute and its programs. Therefore, we had to make a decision to limit expenses – said Łukasz Jachimowicz, director of the Civil Society Department in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, during the meeting of the permanent subcommittee for cooperation with non-governmental organizations on November 4.
Finally, yesterday the government changed its position, and the amendment to the budget was adopted by the public finance committee, and the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance agreed to finance the proposal.
— The money has been agreed with the Ministry of Finance. (…) Finance Minister Andrzej Domański accepted it, the Prime Minister also accepted it – said Rafał Kasprzyk from Poland 2050 during a press conference.
— After numerous talks both in the government and at the parliamentary level, we have obtained the government's consent to implement these two programs – said yesterday Adriana Porowska, vice-chairman of the Public Benefit Committee, secretary of state at the Chancellery of the Prime Minister.
The rest of the article below the video:
The craft breathed a sigh of relief
For ZRP, restoring the program is a significant victory. “The Polish Craft Incubator has been supporting the development of small craft organizations for years, strengthening the competences of future professionals and contributing to the creation of strong local structures. That is why today's vote on the amendment guaranteeing further financing of the initiative was so important. It is with great satisfaction that we inform you that the amendment has been passed,” the union wrote shortly after the amendment was adopted.
— This is a very important program for us, as part of which we organize training, develop the infrastructure of our chambers and educate. Today, our 42 craft schools have an overabundance of students – 75,000. people. By abolishing the program, we would be deprived of the opportunity to further promote Polish crafts, and yet vocational training was supposed to be one of the pillars of Polish education – explained prof. in an interview with Business Insider. Jan Klimek, president of the Polish Craft Association.
In fact, the Ministry of Education wants to focus on vocational training. The main directions of implementation of the state educational policy for the 2025/2026 school year announced in May include “promotion of vocational education in primary schools and in the employer community, strengthening the role of career counseling.”
— Canceling a successful program would send a negative signal and take away some training opportunities. Although PLN 10 million is a really small amount on a national scale, adds Klimek.
Craftsmanship is escaping from the political axe
In this way, the Craft Incubator almost became a victim of the unclear structure of entrepreneurship support programs. — Such a program should be coordinated not by an institution building civil society, but by those responsible for entrepreneurship – for example the Polish Agency for Entrepreneurship Support or the Polish Development Fund. Placing it during the PiS era, for political reasons, in the NIW was a mistake. As a result, when individual institutions are looking for savings, it was one of the first to be cut. However, it was saved thanks to the involvement of coalition politicians – Krystyna Sibińska from the parliamentary team for crafts and Adam Luboński from Poland 2050, who is a craftsman himself – a person familiar with the matter tells us unofficially.
The fight for money begins
Craftsmen were helped by joining the fight for money for agricultural communities. The government's original plan also included a reduction in the Power of Small Communities program that co-finances the initiatives of rural organizations, including: rural housewives' circles. A total of PLN 40 million is to be allocated to both programs. However, it is not known how the funds will be ultimately divided. Increasing funds for one program will mean a smaller pool for the other.
— We are glad that the amendment managed to literally indicate the Incubator as a program that will receive support. We are not talking about a specific amount yet. The funds in the amount of PLN 40 million will be divided by Minister Adriana Porowska, but taking into account the Finance Committee. Ultimately, the program pool may be lower than PLN 10 million, but everyone is convinced that it is right to continue this program, argues Krystyna Sibińska, MP from the Civic Coalition.
Grzegorz Kowalczyk, journalist of Business Insider Polska
