The European Commission approves the release of billions in funds for the resignation of Poland McConnell: the last bastion of the anti-Trump Republicans falls in Washington

The government in Warsaw has satisfactorily achieved important milestones regarding the independence of the judiciary, the Brussels authority announced on Thursday. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the decision at a press conference in Warsaw on Friday.

The money comes from two sources: around €76.5 billion from the EU cohesion budget, which is intended to equalize living standards among member states. On the other hand, the Commission wants to release around 60 billion euros in EU corona aid that has been blocked for a long time. Of this, 34.5 billion euros will flow in the form of loans and 25.3 billion euros in the form of subsidies.

The Brussels authorities cannot decide on their own about the release of Corona aid. The Member States still have to give the green light. After the change of government in December, Poland received an advance of more than five billion euros from the fund set up for the recovery of the economy after the corona pandemic.

The European Commission withheld the money for the country because the previous, long-standing PiS government in Warsaw had undermined the justice system. The EU has recently criticized, among other things, a ruling by the Polish Constitutional Court, according to which parts of EU law are incompatible with the Polish Constitution. This decision is seen as highly problematic because it could give Polish politicians an excuse to ignore unfavorable rulings from the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

The previous national-conservative PiS government in Poland had also introduced highly controversial judicial reforms, which, from the perspective of the Court of Justice, endanger the independence of judges there.

Poland’s new Prime Minister Donald Tusk now wants to defuse the reforms again with his coalition government. During the election campaign before the change of government, he had already promised his compatriots a rapprochement with Brussels to release blocked aid. Last week, Justice Minister Adam Bodnar presented EU partners with a reform plan to eliminate constitutional deficiencies. (saw/sda/dpa)