Poland believes it can unlock more than €100 billion of frozen EU funds with the help of new pro-EU Prime Minister Donald Tusk – POLITICO reports.
The new pro-European government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk has vowed to restore democratic standards and receive EU funds.
Brussels has suspended until 2027 the release of €76 billion of EU cohesion funds meant to reduce inequality in the bloc’s countries over fears of political interference in the courts.
Complicating the situation is the fact that all criteria must be met before the country can receive the money. As a consequence, Brussels expects Warsaw to fulfil conditions related to judicial independence in order to access its share of the EU’s €59.8 billion pandemic recovery fund in the form of grants and loans. But to meet the conditions, the government will have to pass a law to reorganise the National Council of the Judiciary (CNM), a body that selects new judges but which has been deemed politically compromised by European courts.
Poland informed the Commission on Wednesday that it had fulfilled the conditions for accessing the money.
EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders praised the new government’s efforts to restore judicial independence: “This is a change that is warmly welcomed,” he said during a press conference with the Polish Justice Minister Adam Bodnar, signalling a thaw in relations between Brussels and Warsaw.
Funds and Regional Policy Minister Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nalęcz said in a television interview that the first blocked cohesion funds should arrive in Poland in late March or early April.
Polish President Andrzej Duda, who is a PiS member and has a habit of clashing with Tusk, is standing in the way of releasing the frozen funds. There is a chance that Duda will not agree to reforms designed to restore the rule of law, and Tusk’s ruling coalition does not have enough votes in parliament.
