Poland must enact judicial reform to get recovery funds, says Von der Leyen

Poland has secured backing for its long-delayed pandemic recovery plan – but Brussels is withholding the plan’s €36 billion funding until Warsaw rolls back problematic reforms.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen travelled to Warsaw on Thursday to hold talks with prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki and President Andrzej Duda over Poland’s share of an EU-funded system of loans and grants.

The meeting came a week after Poland’s parliament voted to replace a disciplinary chamber for judges with a new body.

Long a bone of contention, the European Commission insisted the chamber – part of a far-reaching judicial reform package – brought Polish judges and courts under political control and undermined the rule of law.

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Two top EU courts agreed last year but Warsaw ignored the rulings – and daily €1 million fines – prompting Brussels to pause Poland’s payout until it changed approach.

Mr Duda hailed Thursday’s agreement as a “breakthrough for Poland”, saying the KPO fund will “serve the common good”. Key proposals include decarbonising Poland’s economy and boosting energy independence.

In addition Poland plans to spend €2.6 billion to boost access to high-speed internet and increase its cybersecurity.

“There is a common Europe – everything which is Poland’s success in the EU is also the EU’s success,” said Mr Duda. “The EU’s success is also a Polish success.”

Final approval of the commission’s decision to grant Poland €23.9 billion in grants and €11.5 billion in loans rests with the EU’s other 26 member states.

If the European Council approves the commission’s proposals within a month, Poland can make its first payment requests in September.

Last week’s vote to replace the disciplinary body has divided the ruling Polish coalition, with some MPs furious at a perceived cave-in to Brussels pressure.

Meanwhile, critics of the government and its contested reforms accuse Brussels of blinking first – at the cost of fundamental rights in Poland.

Response to Ukraine

Amid ongoing battles with Hungary, however, EU officials say Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – and Poland’s generous response to its Ukrainian neighbours – has changed the calculus of their seven-year stand-off with Warsaw.

In Warsaw, Dr von der Leyen outlined a series of “milestones” Poland must pass to release the funds, including the replacement of the disciplinary chamber and reinstatement of judges it suspended or disciplined by the end of 2023.

“A first payment will only be possible when the new law is enforced and ticks all the boxes under this contract,” said Dr von der Leyen during a press conference. “This is progress, but we are not at the end of the road on the rule of law in Poland.”

The commission estimates that the KPO plan will boost Poland’s gross domestic product by up to 1.8 per cent by 2026 and create 105,000 new jobs.

Bankrolled by EU funds, the KPO plan is also a core political pillar of the ruling PiS party’s re-election campaign for next year.

Renew, the liberal faction within the European Parliament, has hit out at the commission for what it sees as rewarding the PiS government while it is “consistently trashing... the rule of law”.

“We should not accept merely small, inadequate cosmetic changes to Poland’s seriously politicised legal system in exchange for the EU funds,” said Renew in a statement.

Poland’s politicians are still working on the Bill to replace the disciplinary body with a new body of professional accountability. So far it remains unclear what will happen to other rule-of-law issues, in particular constitutional court judges dismissed illegally by Mr Duda in 2015 and others appointed in their stead.