Poland to focus on EU defence plan, joins working groups, finance minister says

By Karin Strohecker

LONDON, March 24 (Reuters) – Poland is prioritising a European Union defence-funding programme, but is also part of technical working groups exploring other financing mechanisms, Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski said on Tuesday.

Domanski said the EU’s Security Action for Europe (SAFE) scheme provides cheap financing and ​is essential to Poland’s security in the face of ⁠the threat from Russia.

“Right now, we are focused on the SAFE programme – it’s our priority,” Domanski said on the sidelines of a visit to London. “It’s close to 44 billion euros available for us immediately.”

Asked about other defence-financing efforts such as a push by Britain, Finland and the Netherlands to team up on defence financing and procurement, Domanski said Poland was engaged in working groups on a technical level.

“We are also participating in the discussions,” he said.

Countries are scrambling to ramp up defence financing and procurement as security threats and conflicts intensify worldwide, with Russia’s war in Ukraine in its fourth year and the conflict in the Middle East showing few signs of abating.

The UK-Finland-Netherlands push, referred to by Domanski as the Multilateral Defence Mechanism, is one of several competing initiatives aimed at channelling more private cash into rearming nations.

Canada has been leading a recent push for a new multilateral defence bank – the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank, or DSRB – as part of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s effort to bolster co-operation between NATO members and other ​allies.

“Originally comparing those two, I find this MDM much more interesting,” said Domanski, declining to elaborate.

(Reporting by Karin Strohecker. Editing by Mark Potter)