Today’s news round-up in Poland

Start your day with a summary of today’s top stories from Poland’s leading news sites.

Rp.pl – The newspaper Rzeczpospolita wrote that the government is planning an overhaul of its finances. One of the key changes will be the abolition of the Covid-19 Prevention Fund, an off-budget vehicle that has been used to fund a number of projects, some of which are beyond parliamentary control. Critics of the fund have also said that it has been a convenient place to hide government debt. Its debt, the paper added, will be managed by the state treasury. But other off-budget funds will remain in place.

TVPInfo.pl – Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish prime minister, was right when he warned that a Russian victory in Ukraine would encourage Xi Jinping, the leader of China, to invade Taiwan, a Chinese opposition leader told state-owned broadcaster TVP Info. Yang Jianli, who is also a researcher at Harvard University, added that the West should form an economic Nato to protect itself against Chinese economic actions.

TVN24.pl – Warsaw police have arrested a 26-year-old man and his 74-year-old grandmother on drugs charges, the broadcaster TVN24 reported. The man was arrested for dealing in illegal drugs, while his grandmother is alleged to have been hiding his drugs stash. Police found 666 grams of marijuana and containers of other narcotics on her balcony and in one other room in her flat in the capital’s Praga district.

Wyborcza.pl – The newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza wrote that the National Centre for Research and Development, a state-funded institution designed to support innovation, had handed out almost PLN 1 million (EUR 220,000) in grants to projects that were never intended to be realised. The paper cited an informant as the source of its information. The centre has been hit by allegations that one party, the Republicans, have had too much influence over its funding. According to the paper, there was also a lack of oversight and financial control at the centre.