FinMin has no plans of establishing Fiscal Council

Although the European Commission advises the EU countries to establish Independent Fiscal Institutions (also referred to as Fiscal Councils), the Polish Minister of Finance, Mateusz Szczurek announced that he has no intention of setting up such an institution, according to Polish daily Rzeczpospolita. According to the European Commission, Independent Fiscal Institutions are defined as "non-partisan public bodies, other than the central bank, government or parliament that prepare macroeconomic forecasts for the budget, monitor fiscal performance and/or advise the government on fiscal policy matters. These institutions are primarily financed by public funds and are functionally independent vis-à-vis fiscal authorities." Minister Szczurek said that these tasks are already carried out by existing public institutions such as the Supreme Audit Office (NIK), Regional Accountancy Chambers (Regionalne Izby Obrachunkowe), the Monetary Policy Council (RPP) and the Tripartite Commission. "The Fiscal Council would not bring any added value, on the contrary, it would generate costs and would affect negatively the transparency of public finances in Poland," Szczurek said. Member of the Monetary Policy Council, Dariusz Rosati, disagrees with the minister's opinion. "Such an institution should be established in order to independently assess whether the monetary policy is in line with the long-term financial stability strategy."