The European Commission approved, on Wednesday 1 June, Poland’s €35.4 billion recovery plan, including €23.9 billion in grants and €11.5 billion in loans, as part of the Next Generation EU recovery plan.
“We had an exchange on the Polish recovery and resilience plan. Following this discussion, the College adopted its proposal for a Council implementing decision on the plan”, said the European Commissioner for Economy, Paolo Gentiloni.
This is the first time that EU Commissioners have discussed a national recovery plan at a College meeting and then voted on it. Vice-Presidents Frans Timmermans and Margrethe Vestager voted against. Commissioners Věra Jourová, Ylva Johansson and Didier Reynders, all of whom work closely on issues related to the Rule of law and justice, had objections, but were not present at the meeting, which was unusually scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
The Polish recovery plan, which was officially submitted to the Commission in early May 2021 (see EUROPE 12712/14), foresees 42.7% of its allocation to the climate transition and 21.3% to the digital transition.
However, the delay in approving this plan is mainly due to the reluctance of the Polish government to bring its judicial system into line with European case law. The Commission had set three conditions for the approval of the plan: (1) the abolition of the disciplinary chamber of the Polish Supreme Court, accused of undermining the independence of judges; (2) the reform of the disciplinary regime for judges; (3) the reinstatement of judges who have been sanctioned by the disciplinary chamber.
Last week, the Polish Parliament moved in this direction (see EUROPE 12961/17).
In its assessment, the Commission stresses that before any European financial assistance can be provided under Next Generation EU, Poland will have to complete “a comprehensive reform of the disciplinary system applicable to Polish judges”, in accordance with the steps set out in the Polish recovery plan.
In particular, disciplinary cases against judges will be adjudicated by a different court from the current disciplinary chamber and judges will not be subject to disciplinary liability for submitting a request for a preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice of the EU. In addition, all judges affected by past rulings of the disciplinary chamber will have the right to have these decisions reviewed without delay by an independent and impartial court.
The Polish authorities must also implement the Arachne IT tool, which helps Member States to fight fraud by collecting data on final beneficiaries of funds, contractors and subcontractors.
In doing so, the Commission may seek to demonstrate its support for Poland, which is hosting the majority of refugees fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and to separate the treatment of Warsaw from that of Hungary, whose recovery plan has still not been approved for reasons related to insufficient measures to combat EU aid fraud.
The approval of the Polish recovery plan could also help unblock the Polish veto on the proposed directive transposing the OECD agreement on minimum taxation of multinationals into the EU (see EUROPE 12959/10).
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will travel to Warsaw on Thursday to deliver the EU institution’s analysis of the Polish recovery plan.
The EU Council now has one month to adopt, or reject, the Polish recovery plan.
See the proposal for an EU Council decision approving the Polish recovery plan: https://aeur.eu/f/1wp
See the annex to the proposed decision: https://aeur.eu/f/1wq
See the Commission’s working document accompanying the proposal: https://aeur.eu/f/1wr (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)