According to budget plans reported by Polish media, Poland is set to allocate 4.7% of its GDP to defence in 2025, reflecting a 0.6 percentage point increase from this year’s planned expenditure.

Currently, Poland leads NATO in defence spending, with 4.1% of GDP assigned for 2024. However, the Polish government is considering raising the defence budget by an additional 0.6 percentage points for the following year, as reported by Money.pl.

Consequently, Poland is setting a new record in both the absolute amount and the percentage of GDP allocated to defence spending, which is already estimated at $35 billion this year. This positions Poland as NATO’s fifth-largest spender, with the United States leading the alliance at an estimated $968 billion, Euractiv reports.

A government source revealed to Money.pl that Poland also aims to offset some of these costs by transferring a portion to the EU budget, which would significantly ease the burden on the national budget.

The reasoning behind this move is that Poland shares the EU's external border with both Russia and Ukraine.

“We are talking seriously with the EU about including some of these defence items in the EU budget because we are a frontline country, and we take responsibility for the entire EU,” the source stated.

In addition, the government source said the talks are continuing and the impact is forecast before the end of next month, claiming that “if even 1% is transferred, it would be a success”.

The 2025 budget will be the first one prepared by the new administration under Prime Minister Donald Tusk of the Civic Platform (EPP), who took office after the previous conservative PiS (ECR) government was replaced in December last year.

Furthermore, other reports suggest that the new Polish budget may feature an even larger deficit than the current year's. Recently, the European Commission initiated an excessive deficit procedure against Warsaw, highlighting concerns over the country's fiscal health.

Sources attribute the anticipated higher deficit to the need to address the substantial spending left by the previous government, which governed Poland for the past eight years.

“Sadly, we have to start paying off the debts after PiS’ rule,” one source said.