Civil Protection and Civil Defense Program 2025-2026 (shelters and refuges)

The Civil Protection and Civil Defense Program for 2025-2026 is the first government program in modern Polish history to systematically rebuild civil defense capabilities. It was adopted by the Council of Ministers on 27 May 2025 at the request of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration (MSWiA). It fulfills the statutory obligation under Article 156(5) of the Act of 5 December 2024 on the protection of the population and civil defense. The program's overall envelope is approximately PLN 34 billion (PLN 16.7 billion in 2025 and PLN 17.2 billion in 2026) for all areas of civil protection. That is the value of a nationwide budget allocation, not the cost of a single investment. One of the priorities is the construction and renovation of shelters and places of refuge: for collective protection facilities, local governments receive nearly PLN 5 billion from the program, with grants potentially covering up to 100 percent of investment costs. This record reflects solely this separately allocated and separately documented pool for shelters/protective facilities transferred to local governments, not the full PLN 34 billion envelope. By September 2025, the State Fire Service (PSP) and the Construction Supervision Authority (PINB) had carried out more than 2,000 inspections of protective structures, of which more than 1,000 may be able to serve protective functions; renovations and investments are directed first to areas covered by the National Deterrence and Defense Program "Tarcza Wschód" (East Shield). This record is strictly strategic in nature, and its cost is not counted toward the 'value by stage' aggregate: the approximately PLN 34 billion is the envelope of the entire program, and the approximately PLN 5 billion is a dispersed pool of grants for local governments for shelters/refuges, not a single investment with a distinct outlay.