project | In Principle

A lot has happened in the area of environmental law in Poland in the past few months. We have learned the levels of environmental fees for 2026 and the rates for fines for emission of excess noise for 2026. Proposals have been released for a new Act on Packaging and Waste Packaging and an amendment of the provisions on the operations of the Inspectorate for Environmental Protection. And work is now complete at the EU level on provisions for reducing food waste and for handling textile waste.

It is with a tear in my eye that I recall the era of M&A deals where at the closing, the seller delivered stock certificates to the buyer. The revolutionary change in this respect came with the 2021 amendment to the Commercial Companies Code, introducing mandatory dematerialisation of shares. Now the changes are going even further.


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On 25 August 2025 a bill to amend the Environmental Protection Law was posted on the Government Legislation Centre website. The proposal awards ecological organisations, among others, the right to challenge air protection programmes, revisions to such programmes, and sort-term action plans in this area.

Marketing authorisation holders will no longer have to inform the Integrated System for Monitoring Trade in Medicinal Products of the planned place of delivery of medicines, and it will be easier for persons authorised to issue prescriptions to obtain drug samples. The Polish government has approved these deregulatory proposals in the healthcare field, to be achieved by amending the Pharmaceutical Law. There are also plans to modify the requirements for qualified persons.

On 24 March 2025 a bill was filed with the Sejm to amend the Wind Power Plants Act. We discussed the key changes compared to the earlier draft of 25 September 2024 in last week’s article. This article is devoted entirely to “repowering,” i.e. upgrading existing wind power plants.

For a long time we have been tracking the work on amending the regulations on siting of wind power plants in Poland. In October 2024 we discussed a proposed amendment to the Wind Power Plant Act which would relax the rules for the distance between wind power plants and other facilities. In March 2025 this bill, in a slightly revised form, was submitted to the parliament and is finally being taken up. The key provisions are unchanged: the amendment is intended to expedite the development of onshore wind power in Poland, mainly by eliminating the “10H rule” and introducing a new limit of 500 metres as the minimum distance from residential structures. In this article we discuss the major differences between the current bill and the previous version.

After nearly a year of promises, the government published a proposal to amend the Wind Power Plant Act on 25 September 2024. The amendment of March 2023 was deemed insufficient for accelerating the development of onshore wind power in Poland. Further liberalisation of the rules for siting of wind power plants aims to expedite Poland’s energy transition and stimulate the wind power sector, especially at the local level.

The act introducing the deposit-refund scheme in Poland came into force on 13 October 2023. Companies were given a little more than a year to prepare for their new obligations, as the scheme is set to go live on 1 January 2025. But for several months the new government has been announcing changes to the act. The final wording the provisions when the scheme is launched remains an open question.

A proposal to cut red tape for businesses in Poland could backfire against contractors in procurement appeals.

A bill to implement the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive in Poland was published on 19 April 2024. The main implementation measure is the proposed new chapter 6c of the Accounting Act, entitled “Sustainability Reporting.”

EU member states’ tardiness in implementing environmental directives has consequences. It has led to a proposal of an EU regulation on packaging and packaging waste, to harmonise the internal market and eliminate the overproduction of packaging waste in the European Union. This article discusses certain aspects of the proposal that could significantly affect both businesses and consumers.

The ambitious climate targets adopted by the European Union at the 21st United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2015 (the Paris Agreement) require decisive action across many sectors of the economy. The automotive industry will not be spared, and will soon be subject to a series of new regulations.