The European Commission announced, On Thursday 29 February, that it had adopted two legal acts granting Poland almost €137 billion under the European Cohesion Fund and the Recovery and Resilience Facility.
These two acts are linked to the Rule of law reforms that Poland has recently adopted and the more recent steps it has taken to strengthen the independence of the judiciary. Warsaw presented its progress and reforms at the beginning of January (see EUROPE 13333/12) at a time when the country was experiencing political difficulties in the context of the settling of scores between Donald Tusk’s government and the PiS party, particularly over the public media.
Under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the Commission concluded that Poland had satisfactorily fulfilled two “key points” aimed at strengthening important aspects of the independence of the judiciary, by reforming the disciplinary regime for judges. After validation by the Member States, Warsaw is expected to receive a prepayment of €6.3 billion out of the €59 billion RRF. To date, Poland has already received €5.1 billion in pre-financing from the REPowerEU funds.
The Commission also considers that Poland now fulfils the “horizontal principles” linked to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, allowing it to access a maximum amount of €76.5 billion as part of its 2021-2027 Cohesion Policy.
In a press release, the Commission explains that “Poland has clearly expressed its willingness to address the long-standing Rule of law concerns and committed to working on the basis of the Commission’s recommendations”. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)