Poland's budget deficit last year amounted to 5.1% of GDP, according to the country's Central Statistical Office.

By crossing this dangerous threshold, Poland may prompt the European Commission to initiate an excessive deficit procedure against it—a special control mechanism through which Brussels compels EU member states to adjust their deficit and debt levels. This procedure is triggered when a country exceeds or is at risk of exceeding a deficit level of 3% of GDP, or when state debt equals 60% of GDP.

Poland has long argued in discussions with the EU that its increasing deficit and debt are primarily due to heightened defense spending. Last autumn, EU member states agreed that such expenditures would be considered a "mitigating factor" when assessing the state of public finances for deciding whether to initiate an excessive deficit procedure.

However, it may turn out that even after accounting for defense spending, Poland's public finance sector deficit will exceed 3%.