Poland has welcomed 2022 with scaled-down celebrations as many people stayed home on New Year’s Eve and celebrated only with their immediate family, heeding calls from health officials and experts amid fears of a fifth wave of the pandemic. Scores of events around the nation were cancelled or moved online. But many others went ahead, with vaccinated people enjoying preferential treatment. As is tradition, TVP staged their annual party in the southern mountain resort of Zakopane wheeling out the undisputed king of Disco Polo Zenon for the event. 30,000 fans enjoyed the occasion, with the unvaccinated and vaccinated not allowed to mingle together. In a New Year message to the nation, the Polish president urged the unvaccinated to get their COVID-19 shots.
Source – Polskie Radio
An expert in European law from Germany has said that the EU is likely overstepping its authority and subverting its own treaties in its use of its „cash for democracy” mechanism.
The former lecturer of the University of Mannheim in south-western Germany who is a political economist specialising in international monetary policy and international organisations said the EU’s executive, was „seeking to expand its powers in an unacceptable way … under the excuse of fighting for the rule of law”. The arguments came after Poland’s Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro last week said he would ask the country’s Constitutional Tribunal to declare that the European Union’s so called „rule-of-law” conditionality mechanism is incompatible with the national constitution.
Source – Polskie Radio
The minimum wage will increase in Poland next year to PLN 3,010 a month, officials have said.
Meanwhile, the minimum hourly rate will go up to PLN 19.70 effective January 1st, the Deputy Family and Social Policy Minister noted on Friday. The country’s minimum monthly wage rose to PLN 2,800 at the start of this year, from PLN 2,600 in 2020. The Central Statistical Office noted that average gross Polish monthly wage in November was PLN 6,022.49.
Source – Polskie Radio
And finally, archaeologists have unearthed a nearly 1,000 year old tomb in the Northern town of Chojnice, which is about a 2 hour drive from Gdańsk.
Two amber rings, a bronze bowl and an iron knife in a leather sheath with bronze fittings were in the grave of a man from the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries. According to archaeologists, the artefacts belonged to a representative of the then Pomeranian elite.
Source – Radio Gdańsk
Weather
Today will be a cloudy day with a moderate breeze and chances of showers and temperatures of 7 degrees centigrade (45 degrees Fahrenheit). Tomorrow will be a grey and rainy day in a moderate breeze with temperatures of 8 degrees during the day and 6 degrees overnight.
Martin Caren/ua
