Polish lawmakers have reportedly halted discussions on crypto legislations until January after the parliament’s lower house, the Sejm, voted to pass a nearly identical version of a bill that was vetoed by Poland’s president earlier this month without changes.
Poland’s Sejm Passes Controversial Crypto Bill
On Friday, local news media outlets informed that the Polish Senate hit the brakes on the controversial Crypto-Asset Market Act, following the Sejm’s recent vote to pass “version 2.0” of the legislation.
According to the reports, more than half of the members of the lower chamber voted to pass the revived version of the bill on Thursday, leaving its fate in the hands of the Senate and then the President, who has strongly opposed to the legislation.
As reported by Bitcoinist, Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki vetoed the Crypto-Asset Market Act at the start of the month due to concerns of a potential exodus of startups and overregulating the sector with the “legal mess” proposed by the Polish government.
On December 1, President Nawrocki refused to sign the bill, first introduced in June, which aimed to establish strict rules on the crypto assets market. He argued that the legislation it could pose a real threat to the freedoms of Poles, the stability of the state, and market innovation.
The local crypto community had raised concerns about the bill in September, affirming that it exceeded the European Union (EU)’s minimum regulatory requirements and could drive small businesses and startups abroad.
The parliament attempted to override the President’s veto, but ultimately failed after being unable to secure the required three-fifths majority vote to overturn the presidential decision.
Nonetheless, the part of the ruling coalition in the Sejm reintroduced the bill a week later without allegedly amending any of the controversial policies, raising more concerns among crypto industry players and community members.
Senate Delays Decision Until January
According to the reports, the Senate had initially planned to pass the bill “at an express pace” before the end of the year. However, the Deputy Finance Minister Jurand Drop raised concerns about the intention to pass the legislation with no further revisions.
Deputy Minister Drop pointed out that the Sejm had introduced only one change to the proposal, a lower fee for entities intermediating in crypto trading, despite the government’s disapproval of the current text.
“This amendment, which was introduced during the Sejm vote and which the government disagrees with, concerns the level of fees paid to the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) by entities in the crypto-asset market. The fee has been reduced from 0.4% to 0.1%,” Drop explained.
“Other market segments have fees of a maximum of 0.5%; for this market, the government has proposed 0.4%. Although the KNF’s projections indicate that these fees will not exceed 0.1%, and in the first year, they will not be collected at all, the question remains what will happen if this market grows and, as a result, the fees are forced to exceed 0.1%,” he added.
On Friday morning, the Senate Budget and Public Finance Committee discussed the recently passed bill and the Ministry of Finance’s concerns. The committee chairman, Senator Kazimierz Kleina, suggested that the committee review this modification calmly.
Therefore, he withdrew the motion to pass the bill without new changes and suspended the discussions on the bill, affirming that the Sejm’s amendments “will have to be carefully considered.” Ultimately, Chairman Kleina scheduled to resume work on the legislation during the January Senate session.
