Polish President Karol Nawrocki vetoed legislation that would have allowed Poland to access roughly 44 billion euros ($50.5 billion) from the European Union's 150 billion euro Security Action for Europe (SAFE) defense loan program, TVP World reported on March 12. Prime Minister Donald Tusk condemned the veto, stating the government would move ahead by adopting a resolution to secure defense funding through alternative legal means.

Nawrocki, an ally of the eurosceptic Law and Justice, or PiS, opposition party, has taken an increasingly confrontational approach toward Tusk's government since entering office in August 2025, vetoing 28 bills so far — more than his PiS-backed predecessor Andrzej Duda did over an entire decade. He framed SAFE as a long-term foreign currency borrowing scheme that could impose heavy interest costs on future Polish generations, arguing that military procurement should not be subject to Brussels' influence and warning that the measure would undermine Polish sovereignty, independence and security. Although Poland is set to be the largest beneficiary of the program, PiS has portrayed it as a German-backed mechanism that would increase debt and constrain national discretion over defense procurement.