The European Union is to release \u20ac137 billion of withheld funds from Poland due to rule of law concerns, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday.<\/p>\n
Next week, the commission “will come forward with two decisions on European funds that are currently blocked for Poland,” von der Leyen said at a press briefing in Warsaw. “These decisions will free up \u20ac137 billion for Poland.”<\/p>\n
Concerns about judicial reforms under Poland’s previous nationalist government prompted the commission to withhold money from the EU budget that would normally have been spent in Poland.<\/p>\n
But in October, the nationalist Law and Justice Party (PiS) was ousted by a centrist coalition led by former European Council President Donald Tusk, who has sought to undo the changes PiS made and restore Poland’s EU funding.<\/p>\n
At a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, Poland’s new justice minister, Adam Bodnar laid out the new government’s judicial reform plan to member states’ European affairs ministers.<\/p>\n
In Warsaw on Friday, von der Leyen told Tusk, “I strongly welcome the action plan that your government presented to the member states this week. It is a powerful statement. It is a clear road map for Poland, and your efforts are decisive.”<\/p>\n
She said the \u20ac137 billion “will be guaranteed by the European Public Prosecutor. This is great news for the Polish people and for Europe, and this is your achievement.”<\/p>\n
Von der Leyen said the money will come from two sources: the EU’s cohesion budget, which pays for regional development, and a separate fund created to help the EU’s economy recover from the effects of Covid-19 restrictions.<\/p>\n