2024-04-16 00:50:26
The EU granted Poland 6.3 billion euros from the Pandemic Recovery Fund today, making it the largest single financial transfer in the country’s history, Poland’s Minister of State Development Funds and Regional Policy said, as quoted by the Associated Press.
The previous conservative government, which lost parliamentary elections in October, pushed through changes to the judiciary. According to Brussels, these reforms violated democratic procedures and balances, and this caused the EU to freeze the funds earmarked for Poland under the Pandemic Recovery Fund.
At the time, the EC asked Warsaw to meet certain requirements in order to guarantee the independence of the judiciary and receive the funds foreseen for it, stressing that an independent judiciary is vital for the democratic norms of EU countries.
The Minister of State Funds for Development and Regional Policy, Katarzyna Pelczynska-Nalench, welcomed today’s decision by Brussels.
“It’s worth being part of the EU, but the EU is not just about money, and our predecessors forgot this fact,” Pelczynska-Nalenc wrote on the X social network. “We are united by values: democracy, equal opportunities, the rule of law, civil liberties,” added the Polish minister.
The fund, known as the Recovery and Stability Mechanism, was created in 2020 and amounts to €672.5 billion. The funds are intended for the faster recovery of member countries from the coronavirus pandemic. Poland is to receive €25.3 billion in grants and €34.5 billion in loans.
A spokesman for the EC said today that a total of 23 billion euros is expected to be allocated to Warsaw this year, writes BTA.