2024-01-20 15:08 update: 2024-01-23, 14:07
Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz. Photo PAP/Wojtek Jargiło
An inter-ministerial team to work on changing the system of church fund financing will meet for the first time in the coming days, a deputy prime minister has announced.
Poland's new government is aiming to phase out the so-called Church Fund, a multi-million subsidy to the Catholic Church from state coffers.
On Saturday, Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, a deputy prime minister and the defence minister, told a press briefing in Lublin, eastern Poland, that he will convene the first meeting of the team to work on changes to church funding and other sources of public money for churches "in the coming days."
"I am giving myself time until mid-year to develop solutions regarding the Church Fund, so as to ensure, firstly, an effective change that respects all Churches and religious associations, and above all, respects the faithful and ... our political obligations," he said.
Kosiniak-Kamysz added that the team will likely focus on the measure related to tax write-offs for a church or religious association chosen by the taxpayer.
Last week, a decree by Prime Minister Donald Tusk establishing the Inter-ministerial Team for the Church Fund was published in Monitor Polski, Poland's official journal.
The team will be made up of Kosiniak-Kamysz, the Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration, the Minister of Family, Labour and Social Policy, the Minister of Finance, the Head of the Prime Minister's Office and the Government Legislation Centre.
The team's first report is to be presented to the Cabinet by March 31, 2024.
The draft state budget for 2024 envisages PLN 257 million (EUR 58.9 mln) for the Church Fund, currently used by all 185 religious associations operating legally in Poland.(PAP)
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