The European Commission yesterday gave the green light to the national reform plan of the Government of Poland, a decision with which it takes the first step to put an end to the dispute that has prevented this country from accessing the 36,000 million euros that correspond to it in the post pandemic recovery fund.
The underlying problems, the politicization of the judicial system, confirmed by the Court of Justice of the EU, have not been resolved, but the Polish parliament has begun to process a law to replace the disciplinary chamber of its Constitutional Court with another body. However, in accordance with the conditions set by European justice, the changes must still be adopted, applied and serve to reinstate the dismissed judges. The beginning of the process has convinced Brussels that it was time to send a signal of goodwill. The European anti-crisis fund provides 23.9 billion euros in subsidies and 11.5 billion euros in loans for Poland, conditional on compliance with certain reforms. In this case, the payment of the aid will only occur “when Poland demonstrates that it meets the milestones” included in the plan on judicial independence, the Community Executive explained in a statement.
The war in Ukraine has changed the background panorama between the EU and Poland, the club's country that has received the most refugees and a firm ally in the policy of pressure on the Kremlin. Mateusz Morawiecki's executive has been pressing for weeks for Brussels to unblock the aid on the grounds that it needs the money to care for people fleeing the conflict, but the Commission maintains that the decision has been made exclusively on the merits of the plan , which must promote the digital and energy transition in the country to get out of the crisis.
In an institution accustomed to making decisions by consensus, the fact that yesterday it voted indicates to what extent the initiative has been controversial in the college of commissioners. The result has not transpired and the proposal went ahead, but the teams of Frans Timmermans, Margrethe Vestager and Vera Jourova had expressed reservations about the strategy of the president, Ursula von der Leyen, who will travel to Warsaw today to demonstrate the new climate of understanding and present the details of the recovery plan.
While in the Council – which will have the last word on the Polish plan – national diplomatic sources endorse Von der Leyen's pragmatic approach, the European Parliament views the decision with distrust and has asked him to appear urgently to discuss the situation of the rule of law in the country.
