The Vice-President of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, indicated on Tuesday 5 April in Luxembourg that the services of the European institution could “very soon” finalise the evaluation of the Polish Recovery Plan in the framework of the Next Generation EU Recovery Plan.
Reporting on “very intensive” contacts with Polish authorities and “ good” progress, he noted that the main outstanding issue concerns “ the independence of the Polish judiciary”, in particular, bringing Polish law into line with European jurisprudence.
Speaking later at the plenary session of the European Parliament, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, somewhat tempered the imminence of an approval of the Polish plan and recalled the requirements of the EU institution.
“We have three demands: the dissolution of the disciplinary chamber, the reform of the disciplinary system and the reintroduction of judges who have been unlawfully dismissed”, she said. She added: “This is a very clear milestone. We want these reforms to be adopted. We need the national parliament to pass legislation and these reforms and they will have to meet these requirements. Otherwise, there will be no funds. We are not there yet”. (Mathieu Bion and Thomas Mangin)