PM Morawiecki dismisses economic development minister Piotr Nowak

At the end of Thursday's press conference, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced that the Minister of Economic Development and Technology Piotr Nowak was dismissed.

"I have decided today to dismiss Mr Piotr Nowak as the chief of the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology. Already today I have sent a request to President Andrzej Duda to accept this dismissal," Morawiecki said.

On Tuesday (March 22), Piotr Nowak said that the European Commission should greenlight the National Recovery Plan (NRP) "any moment now". He added there was a political consent within the EU executive to launch the fund.

The following day, the government spokesperson Piotr Muller said there no decision was made regarding the NRP.

"No decisions has been made yet regarding the NRP. I wish I was such an optimist as minister Nowak. Negotiations regarding NRP are carried out personally by prime minister Morawiecki, whereas technical issues are managed by minister Buda (ed. note: Minister of Investement and Economic Development Waldemar Buda). Still a few issues need to ironed out," Muller said.

The prime minister was asked at the press conference on Thursday if any other changes to the justice systems would be introduced besides the president's bill and if there was an agreement with the EU Commission with regards to the scope of the reform.

"There is no agreement with the European Commission on the NRP yet. We are working on it. Minister Waldemar Buda is working on it very intensively from the technical persepctive. I very often discuss this issue, practically once every few days, with president Ursula von der Leyen," he said.

In late January, Bartek Godusławski from Business Insider wrote about Nowak's position in the government growing stronger. According to Godusławski, there were voices in PiS saying that Morawiecki should pay a political price for the failure of the Polish Deal programme. "Business Insider Polska sources claim that rumours have started to circulate in recent days that maybe it would be better to return to the idea of one minister standing at the helm of two economic ministries: of development and finance," we read in BI.

The idea of Nowak as the head of a superministry was said to have been gaining support. "For an increasing number of PiS politicians, Piotr Nowak appears as a new version of Mateusz Morawiecki," Godusławski wrote.

Business Insider also drew attention to the increasing amount of government responsibilities of the minister. BI sources spoke about a "road show across Europe" and listed meetings with the French minister of economy, or with the key commissioners in Brussels.

The National Recovery Plan (NRP) is a comprehensive document that sets out the objectives for rebuilding and creation of Poland's socio-economic resilience following the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It includes proposals for reforms and investments that will help Poland get back on the path to development.

Piotr Nowak served as economic development and technology minister from October 26, 2021. He was responsible for economy, for economy, construction, spatial planning and development, and housing.