Polish Parliament adopts new law that mandates testing of legislation that applies to SMEs

The lower house of the Polish parliament, the Sejm, adopted the presidential draft amendments to the Law on Freedom of Economic Activity on Thursday , which allows the law-making process to take into account the impact of new solutions for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. Specifically, President Andrzej Duda proposed that all draft legislation on the rights and obligations of the entrepreneurs and their rights and duties towards the public administration must be tested for their effects on micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. Further, the proposal necessitated that the results of these studies was a compulsory part of preparing the draft normative act. According to the president, due to the complexity of tax laws and the excessive number of administrative acts placed on SMEs, testing effects of legislation was more important for these smaller businesses than for large enterprises. Therefore, President Duda said, it is considered “reasonable to make a real special effort to accommodate the proposed regulation by the legislator to the specific operation of the [SMEs].” The bill passed overwhelmingly, as 439 deputies voted for it and two against (with no abstentions).