© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: European Commissioner for Funds and Administration Johannes Hahn speaks throughout a information convention on the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium December 22, 2021. Virginia Mayo/Pool through REUTERS/File Picture
By Jan Strupczewski
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Fee will discover a approach for Poland to entry some 111 billion euros in frozen EU funds as the brand new Polish authorities strikes towards assuaging the bloc’s considerations in regards to the rule of regulation, European Funds Commissioner Johannes Hahn mentioned on Wednesday.
New centrist Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s authorities was sworn in on Wednesday, the ultimate step in a switch of energy that marks an enormous change after eight years of nationalist rule.
Following years of disputes between Warsaw and Brussels below the earlier authorities, led by the Legislation and Justice (PiS) get together, Tusk’s appointment has raised hopes of smoother relations with the European Union.
“We have a lot of expectations and we will certainly support him (Tusk) in his efforts,” Hahn advised Reuters in an interview.
“We’re not talking about an immediate transfer of billions — it’s more about de-blocking of funds. We have to see how to proceed,” he mentioned. “I’m sure that we will find ways to help Poland. We don’t have any doubts that they are moving so to say in the right rule-of-law direction,” he mentioned.
Hahn’s remark was the primary official phrase from the Fee about Poland’s prospects for having access to the EU funds for the reason that change in authorities. Tusk arrived in Brussels on Wednesday for an EU summit and can focus on the frozen funds with the Fee on the sidelines.
At stake is Poland’s entry to 35.4 billion euros ($38.1 billion) in grants and loans from the European Union’s restoration fund, which the EU has suspended till Warsaw restores the independence of its judiciary system, undermined by the PiS authorities.
The identical considerations are blocking Poland’s entry to 76.5 billion euros ($82.5 billion) of EU cohesion funds, meant to lift the usual of dwelling within the EU’s poorer areas.
Poland must move new legal guidelines to fulfill a number of the Fee’s calls for that the nation reverse measures adopted by the earlier, nationalist authorities.
However the brand new legal guidelines would require the signature of Poland’s President Andrzej Duda, who’s aligned with the previous authorities and has signalled he wouldn’t help them.
Duda’s time period ends in mid-2025, creating an impediment for the Tusk authorities. Hahn mentioned the Fee would work with Warsaw to resolve the issue.
“How this can be done is beyond my current knowledge. But we certainly will not wait one and a half years, so I think there must be a kind of solution,” he mentioned.
