According to the Financial Times, Brussels has decided to allocate the first tranche of financial assistance to Warsaw, amounting to $5.1 billion from previously frozen EU funds for Poland.
The newspaper reports that this allocation has been made “in anticipation of the expected return of Donald Tusk to the position of Prime Minister.”
Tusk had already conducted negotiations in Brussels at the end of October with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, regarding the unfreezing of “Polish funds.”
It is mentioned that if the EU funds earmarked for Poland are released, Warsaw could receive around €60 billion.
However, most of these grants and loans can only be granted after Warsaw backs down on judicial reforms, which, according to the European Commission, undermine the independence of judges in Poland.
Vice President of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, stated that the requirements related to “important aspects of the independence of the Polish judiciary and some other elements” remain unchanged.
He added that regular tranches of EU funding would only be disbursed after “these issues are fully resolved.”
In 2021, the European Commission suspended the allocation of funds to Poland due to Warsaw’s violation of the principle of the rule of law, which is considered a crucial demand during the distribution of the EU budget among its member states.
This includes all EU budget funds, including the Recovery and Resilience Facility designed for Union countries following the COVID-19 pandemic.
