Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, says that Poland should stop attempting to meet the EU’s demands to unlock billions of euros in European funds. He believes that Warsaw has already met all of the previously agreed conditions and has “shown too much goodwill” towards Brussels.
His words appear to stand in contrast to those of the government’s minister for funds and regional policy, Grzegorz Puda, who a few days earlier said that Poland still has to reach five further “milestones” agreed with the EU in order to begin receiving its €36 billion from the post-pandemic recovery fund.
TYLKO U NAS. Koniec rozmów ws. KPO z Komisją Europejską? Prezydent @AndrzejDuda dla @Tygodnik_Sieci: „Żadnych odpowiedzi na sugestie z tamtej strony realizował nie będę” https://t.co/c7m1sEZWPt
— wPolityce.pl (@wPolityce_pl) November 5, 2022
In an interview with the conservative Sieci weekly, extracts of which were published yesterday, Duda was asked how it would be possible to reach an agreement with Brussels.
“I will not implement any responses to suggestions from that side [the European Commission],” responded the president. “I do not believe that further meeting the expectations of the other side will bring any results. I believe that too much goodwill has been shown on the Polish side”
“To my knowledge, we met all the conditions to receive money from the [pandemic recovery fund],” he continued. “Our spending plan was approved. I understand that we are waiting for the payment of what we are owed.”
At the start of June, the European Commission did approve Poland’s spending plan. However, the agreement also included a number of milestones the Polish government had to meet in order to unlock the funds, in particular with regard to ensuring the independence of the judiciary by rolling back some of its reforms.
The following month, Poland sought to meet one of those conditions by closing down its disciplinary chamber for judges. However, European Commission figures, including President Ursula von der Leyen, have said that this in itself is not enough to meet all the requirements.
That led PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński to claim in August that, despite “maximum goodwill” from the Polish government, their agreement had been broken by Brussels. The following month he said that Poland would sue the commission if it continued to “illegally” block the funds.
Kaczyński also suggested that the commission’s stance was part of a “German-Russian plan to rule over Europe” in collusion with the Polish opposition, who are working under “foreign orders” to “enslave Poland”.
Poland "has no reason to fulfil our obligations towards the EU" because Brussels has broken agreements, says Kaczyński.
He warned there is a “German-Russian plan to rule Europe” and that the opposition is working under “foreign orders” to “enslave Poland" https://t.co/94S2sRaKXX
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) August 8, 2022
On Saturday, the PiS chairman repeated those claims, saying that the “anti-state and anti-national” opposition was to blame for Poland not receiving its funds. In his latest remarks to Sieci, Duda – who is a former PiS politician and remains a government ally – made similar accusations.
“We know very well that there is a group from Poland that pursues a policy contrary to the basic interests of the Polish state, and is rubbing its hands when Poland is harmed in Brussels,” he said.
“I regret that, but those are the facts,” Duda added. “Just as it is a fact that the liberal-left camp, whose representatives make up the majority in the European Commission, wants to change the government in Poland at all costs.”
“We did not enter an EU where foreign models would be imposed on us,” added Duda. “This is not the kind of EU we want. Poles did not agree to such an EU.”
However, in an interview with Polskie Radio last week, funds and regional policy minister Puda suggested that, in fact, Poland has not yet met all the requirements agreed with the EU to unlock its funds.
“Recently, the European Commission approved another milestone that Poland had to meet,” he said. ” So there are…[now] five indicators left that Poland must meet and which must be approved by the European Commission.”
Only once all the milestones are met will the government submit an application for the first payment of funds, he added. On the same day, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki confirmed that “we are finishing preparation of the application”, which should be submitted within two to three weeks.
Puda o wypłacie pieniędzy z KPO: KE musi zatwierdzić tylko 5 wskaźników https://t.co/DJeD5v7pnK
— Forsal.pl (@forsalpl) November 2, 2022
In a separate development, Poland last Thursday submitted a request for the European Commission to stop levying fines of €1 million per day over Warsaw’s failure to comply with a European court ruling regarding its disciplinary regime for judges.
Last month, it also emerged that the commission is blocking not only Poland’s pandemic recovery funds over rule-of-law concerns, but also its cohesion funds, which amount to €75 billion in the current budget period.
Duda described it as an attempt by “liberal-left elites” to influence next year’s elections in Poland.
Main image credit: Jakub Szymczuk/KPRP
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
