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Poland’s prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that work on a bill amending the law on the Supreme Court, which is key to accessing EU funds, should start in parliament in the coming days.
Poland is due to get EUR 23.9 billion in grants and EUR 11.5 billion in cheap loans from the EU’s post-pandemic Recovery and Resilience Facility.
The European Commission, however, has blocked Poland’s access to the funding due to a rule-of-law dispute, even though the Commission has approved Poland’s National Recovery Plan (KPO), which outlines how the government will spend the money.
In a bid to get access to the funds, MPs of the ruling Law and Justice party have tabled a bill in the Sejm, lower house of parliament, amending the law on the Supreme Court to satisfy one of the rule-of-law “milestones” set by the EC.
Mateusz Morawiecki, the prime minister, said he hoped the legal amendment would be adopted quickly, after which it will be sent to the president for signing.
“The law, which has been written based on a compromise worked out by Minister (for EU Affairs – ed.) Szynkowski vel Sek gives a strong basis to believe it may end this unnecessary dispute,”
Morawiecki commented.
He said the dispute with Brussels had to end as it sent a bad signal to Russia, adding that “if the bill is adopted in that form, without serious changes, it will be difficult for the EC to back out of its obligations.”
He said the bill had been discussed with Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, leader of Eurosceptic junior ruling coalition party Solidary Poland, as well as with other MPs of that party, which has expressed opposition to any concession to Brussels.
“It can be said that the unity of the United Right is a lasting value,”
Morawiecki said. “I don’t believe that unity was breached by work on the Supreme Court law.”
Earlier on Saturday, the EU’s commissioner for justice, Didier Reynders, took to Twitter to confirm that the bill was a step towards the funding being unblocked.