There will be no media reform and abolition of the license fee. Ministry of Finance: The budget will not support it
The Ministry of Finance and Economy does not see any possibility of financing public media from the state budget before the public finance sector deficit reaches 4%. – wrote in the opinion on the draft of the new media law. As a solution, he proposes replacing the subscription with another source of income.
The opinion states that the designed solutions will generate very large financial effects – of a rigid nature – increasing state budget expenditure over 10 years by approximately PLN 25 billion, including in 2027 by PLN 2.5 billion.
“The presented amount is impossible to bear by the budget and will have a negative impact on the general government sector calculated according to the EU methodology (ESA2010). The introduction of a mechanism for financing the public media mission directly from the state budget and the simultaneous abolition of the radio and television license fee, i.e. de facto the introduction of a model of financing the public media mission from the state budget, will require 'allocation' of funds within the limit resulting from the stabilizing expenditure rule (SRW) and will slow down fiscal consolidation process,” it was written.
According to the opinion, the proposed solution transfers the burden of financing expenses directly to the state budget, while the source of financing these expenses is eliminated – no other source of funds for financing the task was proposed.
“The introduction of financing new tasks from the state budget, while simultaneously eliminating the sources of their financing, has a negative impact on the stability of public finances and increases the risk of tensions in the construction of the state budget in the coming years,” it was written.
In the opinion of the Ministry of Finance, the optimal solution seems to be replacing the subscription fee with another source of income. At the same time, the new system of collecting funds to finance the media's public mission should be effective, simple and evenly distribute the burden.
“We would like to inform you that public radio and television broadcasting companies are, as a rule, part of the government and local government sector (GG sector) and their loss of subscription income will result in a deterioration of the general government sector's result. The presented proposal to establish a fixed minimum amount of subsidy from BP to public radio and television broadcasting companies contributes to stiffening budget expenses, which is particularly undesirable in the current fiscal situation in Poland and will have a negative impact on the flexibility of fiscal policy,” it was written.
As a result of the high general government deficit in 2023, Poland was subject to the excessive deficit procedure in July 2024. On January 21, the EU Council adopted recommendations for Poland, setting 2028 as the deadline for eliminating the excessive deficit.
The opinion indicated that economic conditions and continued close monitoring by the European Commission of the situation and the level of Poland's budget expenditure, including, in particular, the compliance of the growth rate of net expenditure with that recommended by the EU Council, mean the need to maintain restrictions on the increase in budget expenditure. Therefore, the proposed changes should not cause additional burdens on the state budget. Efforts should be made to develop solutions that will burden the state budget as little as possible.
“In connection with the above, I propose the use of a mechanism making the entry into force of the act conditional on achieving the general government sector result of – 4 percent (minus 4 percent) of GDP or more. I note that there are already provisions in legal acts making statutory changes dependent on specific circumstances (indicated by specific provisions) that may occur in the future, an example of which is the Act on tax on goods and services,” it was written.
On December 8, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Marta Cienkowska, submitted a draft amendment to the Broadcasting Act for public consultations. Comments can be submitted until January 23, 2026.
The project aims to depoliticize public media, ensure stable financing and implement the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) into the Polish legal system, i.e. the provisions of the Regulation of the European Parliament and of the EU Council of April 11, 2024 on establishing a common framework for media services in the internal market and amending Directive 2010/13/EU.
The legislator emphasizes, among other things, that the current system of financing public media does not meet the requirements set out in EMFA. It is proposed to repeal the Act on License Fees, and thus eliminate the obligation to pay license fees by households and other entities obliged to pay them. The state budget is proposed as the basic source of financing the public mission of public broadcasters, from which funds would be transferred for purposes related to the implementation of the public mission. The proposed solution is to include a fixed amount (PLN 2.5 billion) of budget financing for public media in the draft law.
“Securing the minimum amount that can be allocated to public media in a given year in this way will avoid discussions on its amount during the budget debate, as a result of which it could change, as such a solution would not meet the system stability requirement provided for in Article 5(3) of EMFA,” it was pointed out.
Financial resources allocated to the implementation of the public mission will be transferred annually by the Minister of Finance to the account managed by the National Broadcasting Council. The National Broadcasting Council will divide the funds between public radio and television broadcasting companies on the basis of procedures specified in statutory provisions.
The justification states that the analysis of the financial needs of public media related to the implementation of the public mission in 2024, shown in the duty sheets agreed with the National Broadcasting Council, indicates that the total cost of implementing mission tasks by all public radio and television companies is PLN 3,859 million, and is therefore higher than the proposed amount of public financing.
“Therefore, it is necessary to leave other sources of financing for public radio and television broadcasting units in the Act of December 29, 1992 on public radio and television broadcasting. This means that despite the adoption of a significant part of the financing of public media by the state budget, the so-called mixed system of financing public media will still be maintained, which is accepted in principle by the EC and considered permissible by case law under the TFEU and the Amsterdam Protocol in the context of state aid rules,” it was written.
It was explained that “the mixed model of financing public media is characterized by the existence, in addition to budget financing, of the possibility of allocating revenues from non-public sources to the implementation of the public mission.” (PAP)
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