Pandora's package

The Council of Ministers has adopted the first part of the so-called "Kluska package," a group of bills designed to lift barriers on business activity to facilitate and stimulate entrepreneurship in Poland. Among the Kluska package's main goals are plans to simplify the registration of new companies and to reduce the burden of state inspections. It is to be voted on in the Sejm in mid-June.

The package is proving to be something of a disappointment, however, and entrepreneurs say the reforms are neither as attractive nor as radical as they seemed when they were announced in March. The package's current form, however, simply imposes certain time limits on state inspections rather than reducing their number altogether.

Moreover, although they were not part of the original set of reforms, business leaders have been clamoring for the inclusion of measures to reduce pension fees. This has not happened, however. "If pension fees are not reduced, salaries will not rise," commented Marek Goliszewski, the president of Business Centre Club, in a recent Radio PIN interview.

"We feel a bit dissatisfied," says Adam Ambrozik, an expert from the Confederation of Polish Employers (KPP). Among the changes necessary for the fostering of business in Poland, KPP lists labor-cost reduction, simplification of the tax system and making administrative officials financially responsible for mistakes which lead to corporate losses. Moreover, KPP would also like to see simplified regulations for employing the disabled and limits on early retirement.

"We hope that the subsequent parts of the package will include broader and more radical changes," stressed KPP in its official press release.