European Commission greenlights %5.47B advance payment to Poland

By Jo Harper

WARSAW (AA) – The European Commission has approved a €5 billion ($5.47 billion) advance payment to Poland from an amended National Reconstruction Plan (KPO), Polish commercial radio RMF FM reported on Monday.

EU ministers will vote on the plan at a European Council meeting on Dec. 8, but diplomats do not expect difficulties and the first funds should appear in Polish coffers at the beginning of next year, private TVN24 reported.

The €5 billion comes under the RePowerEU program, created as part of the KPO to support energy transformation and move away from Russian fossil fuels.

Poland applied for these funds at the end of August, sending a new, modified KPO to Brussels. In this assessment, the European Commission does not take into account rule of law issues and does not check whether any milestones, including those relating to the judiciary, have been achieved.

The EU has blocked funds worth about €35.4 billion under the KPO due to concerns that the promised rescinding of Warsaw’s post-2015 reforms to the judiciary doesn’t go far enough.

Poland was paying a daily fine of €1 million imposed by the European Commission after a EU Court of Justice ruling.

The coalition that appears the most likely outcome of the Oct. 15 election – made up of the Civic Coalition (KO), the Third Way, and the Left – has promised to reverse Poland’s democratic backsliding since Law and Justice (PiS) came to power in 2015.

All three groups share the desire to restore order in the justice system, primarily in the Supreme Court, the prosecutor's office, and the Constitutional Tribunal. They hope this will unblock EU funds, including funds from the KPO.

KO leader Donald Tusk – a former European Council head – has made a visit to Brussels and said he expected the EU to unblock the full KPO funds as soon as the new government takes office.​​​​​​​