Polish president vetoes student rights bill and maritime pollution law, signs five other acts and renews Green Deal referendum push
President Karol Nawrocki announced on 2 July that he vetoed the student ombudsman law and the maritime pollution act, saying the first would create a "school prosecutor's office" and the second would enforce the EU Green Deal. He also signed five other bills and said he will resubmit a request for a referendum on the Green Deal.
Veto decisions announced
President Karol Nawrocki used his constitutional power on Thursday, 2 July, to reject two laws recently passed by parliament. In an online statement, he also signed five other acts and sent one, on excise tax, to the Constitutional Tribunal for preventive review. The presidential office said the move reflected a detailed analysis with experts and advisers.
Every project was analysed and consulted with experts. Some laws are worth supporting because they serve people and tidy important areas of public life. But there are also those that bring more harm than good.
Student ombudsman law blocked
The first vetoed measure would have created a catalogue of student rights and duties at statutory level and established a network of pupil rights ombudsmen, at national, regional, and optionally at local and school levels. The law was intended to systematise scattered regulations and respond to demands from youth groups. Minister of Education Barbara Nowacka had argued it organised existing rules and answered long-standing calls from student communities.
Nawrocki, however, described the bill as a bureaucratic and ideological threat. He stated that schools need stability, good teaching, and teacher authority, not mechanisms that could turn any educational decision into a formal dispute.
It does not protect rights, it increases bureaucracy and leads to ideologisation. This will be a school prosecutor's office hunting anonymous denunciations and building an antagonistic system, not cooperation within the school community.
The president also criticised the financial aspect: at a time of staffing shortages and equipment needs, spending several million zlotys a year on duplicating existing oversight bodies was, in his view, mismanagement.
Maritime pollution act and the Green Deal
The second veto targeted the so-called Fuel Maritime law, which would have required shipowners to gradually reduce pollution and monitor the use of renewable and low-emission fuels. Sea office directors would have checked compliance and imposed fines, with revenues funding the decarbonisation of port infrastructure. Nawrocki framed the bill as a direct implementation of the European Green Deal, which he has opposed since the start of his term.
I said clearly: the Green Deal must be stopped. I want Poles to have their say on this matter. That is why I am resubmitting a request for a referendum.
His first referendum motion was rejected by the Senate; he now plans a renewed attempt. The president argued the new rules would increase business costs through extra fees, administrative duties, and high fines, weakening the competitiveness of Polish and European ports.
Education sector reaction
Teachers' trade union ZNP president Sławomir Broniarz criticised the president's decision, telling Fakt that he had not heard of any consultation with the teaching community on the student rights bill. Minister Nowacka had previously acknowledged some teachers' doubts, especially about the idea of a separate teacher rights ombudsman, which she said could undermine trade unions' role.
I have not heard that President Nawrocki talked about this with anyone from the teaching community.
The veto is the latest in a series: Nawrocki has now signed 236 laws and vetoed 39 since taking office. He also appealed to the government not to submit bills that it plans to change soon, warning that "time is running relentlessly" for the promises made during the election campaign.
Five laws signed simultaneously
Alongside the vetoes, the president approved five acts passed by parliament: a bill on student cooperatives; amendments to criminal procedure and the Code of Criminal Fiscal Offences; a bill on the European Arrest Warrant; energy sector deregulation measures; and a metropolitan union law for the Pomorskie Voivodeship, bringing together 61 municipalities and close to 1.6 million residents. No major controversy accompanied these signatures.
