Poland is three-quarters of the way through its “Two Years of Digital Revolution,” and the country has emerged as one of the European Union’s leaders in digital governance. A CEPA roundtable convened Polish officials, policy experts, and representatives from the financial technology sector to discuss mObywatel, Warsaw’s flagship citizen app, alongside Poland’s broader investments in artificial intelligence and quantum computing. The conversation covered what Poland’s approach offers the EU as it works to deliver on eIDAS 2.0. Participants also weighed how the European Commission’s recently released tech sovereignty package will shape the bloc’s digital future.
Poland’s analog infrastructure was effectively frozen under communism. The country had to build from scratch after 1989, which removed legacy systems as a constraint. As a unitary state with a central civil registry, Poland was also able to enforce a unique principle: citizens submit data to the government once, and public institutions share it among themselves. Several participants noted that this structural advantage is difficult to replicate in federated systems. Still, its lessons travel.
mObywatel as a Trust Model
mObywatel anchors Poland’s digital ecosystem. Built in-house by Ministry of Digital Affairs IT staff and released as open source, the app digitizes nearly 100% of public services. It stores government documents, enables tax payments, and generates valid electronic signatures. It also integrates with Google Pay and Apple Pay, and even lets users file a digital statement after a car accident. mObywatel is the first EU identity wallet for children. Additionally, the app is compliant with eIDAS 2.0, positioning Warsaw to help the EU deliver a cross-border digital ID. Several participants framed in-house development as a security and resilience choice as much as a sovereignty one. The app is fast, trusted, and widely adopted.
AI, Quantum, and a Realistic Approach to Sovereignty
Poland’s digital ambitions extend well beyond government services. The country hosts the PIAST AI Gigafactory and Europe’s first room-temperature quantum computer. Further, its homegrown Polish-language model, PLLuM, is being integrated across agencies. PLLuM was developed with university researchers rather than in partnership with major AI companies — an approach attendees described as deliberate, both for source reliability and for sovereignty.
Multinationals are following the talent. Visa has committed €500m across the eurozone, with significant Polish hiring, and major R&D centers continue to expand. Participants noted that, in contrast to the labor-market anxieties driving AI backlash elsewhere, Poland’s engineering shortage and high institutional trust have kept public attitudes towards AI positive, for now.
Takeaways
Poland’s experience is a useful test case for whether digital governance can be both ambitious and trusted. Officials cautioned that the EU’s regulatory approach must remain flexible as the technology evolves, and that harmonization — across member states and with the US — is essential to capture AI’s full benefits. Warsaw is positioning itself as an essential part of the European AI stack, but the political and regulatory questions are only going to get harder.
Jack Galloway is a Program Assistant with the Tech Policy Program at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).
Alina Kreynovich is a Program Assistant for External Affairs at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).
This event was held at the Center for European Policy Analysis under the Chatham House Rule.
CEPA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, public policy institution. All opinions expressed are those of the author(s) alone and may not represent those of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis. CEPA maintains a strict intellectual independence policy across all its projects and publications.
