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Amendments to the act on freedom of business activity

by in Law, Business

After Polish Sejm and Senate passed amendments changing the act on freedom of business activity, the document landed on the desk of the President of Poland. Andrzej Duda has just signed the bill, which introduces the amendments to one of the most important legal documents regulating economic activity in the country.

The President’s signature is the final step of the legislative process. As the amendments were approved by the Head of State, they will soon enter into force and become a part of Polish law. The new provisions that entered the act on freedom of business activity were developed out of the initiative of the President. It was his office that prepared the draft of the bill introducing the amendments.

President Duda believes that for Polish micro, small and medium companies it is very hard to keep up with the complicated and constantly changing legislation and that small entrepreneurs have to spend a lot of their time on fulfilling compliance obligations. The idea behind the new legal provisions is to give more protection to this type of entities.

The amendments concern Polish micro, small and medium enterprises. From the day the new law comes into force, new draft legislation must be verified in terms of its impact on that type of business entities. The findings must be included in the report on the effects of the new provisions that accompanies drafts of bills voted on in the Parliament.

Micro, small and medium companies constitute a vast majority (over 90 percent) of business entities in Poland and employ 70 percent of the workforce on the labour market. However, according to the proponents of the changes, their wellbeing does not always get the lawmakers’ attention when amendments to laws regulating Polish economic environment are being developed.

The recent amendments are to ensure more focus will be put on smaller entities when forming new legal acts. Even though small businesses are very important to the country’s economy, much too often their voice is not heard by the legislators.