Impact of the Council Directive on Requirements for Budgetary Frameworks of the Member States on the Polish Public Finance System

Abstract

Purpose: The paper discusses the validity of the thesis according to which Polish budgetary framework in place in 2011 required only minor adjustments in order to be consistent with the principles set forth in the EU Council Directive on requirements for budgetary frameworks of Member States adopted in November 2011. Basic elements of the budgetary framework laid down in the Directive had already been provided for in Polish law.

Methodology: A comparative analysis of the provisions of the Directive with relevant acts of Polish legislation, including the Public Finance Act, was carried out. The author outlines the Polish budgetary framework before 2011 and the most important adjustments introduced by the end of 2013 on the basis of the budgetary framework structure set forth in the Directive.

Findings: The assessment of the convergence of provisions encompassed definitions, accounting, statistics, forecasts, numerical fiscal rules, medium-term budgetary frameworks, transparency and consistency. Its results demonstrate that Polish regulations complied with the provisions of the Directive. In order to confirm their correctness, an assessment of the practical application of recent adjustments, which entered into force in 2014, must be carried out.

Constraints to research: The analysis addresses the main concepts and their most important characteristics, and therefore a synthetic approach to the subject required omitting a number of specific issues.

Originality: The paper analyses the convergence of the Polish budgetary framework in 2011 and its subsequent adjustments to the provisions of the Directive of the EU Council requiring Member States to amend their legislation by the end of 2013.