Poland to get recovery cash after meeting agreed milestones – Commission

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Poland will get money from the European Union recovery fund only after it reaches the milestones and targets that the Polish government has jointly agreed with the EU in many months of negotiations, the European Commission said on Thursday.

Poland is eligible for 24 billion euros in grants and 11.5 billion euros in very cheap loans to rebuild its economy greener and more digitalised after the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the money is frozen because Poland’s ruling eurosceptic PiS party does not want to roll back changes to the judiciary introduced over the last seven years, even though it is one of the conditions that was jointly agreed with the Commission.

PiS leaders this week vowed they would not make any concessions and threatened to make EU decision-making difficult unless Poland can draw on the EU fund.

“The Commission and Poland have discussed this plan for months, in every detail, it has been signed by both sides, so there is no space for misunderstandings,” a Commission spokeswoman told a regular briefing.

“It is clear that the agreed milestones and targets have to be met,” she said.

(Reporting by Jan Strupczewski)