Poland’s EU funds to be unblocked only after reforms to judicial system, says von der Leyen

The European Commission will only disburse billions of euros in funds to Poland – which have been frozen over rule-of-law concerns – once the country demonstrates that it has implemented the agreed reforms to its disciplinary regime for judges, says Ursula von der Leyen.

The European Commission president confirmed the conditions that must be met in a letter to the heads of four European Parliament groups. It comes after the Polish government announced last week that it had agreed the “milestones” for the commission to finally unblock its Covid recovery funds.

Each country’s recovery and resilience plan must address specific recommendations, von der Leyen wrote. In Poland’s case, this includes the independence of the judiciary, which is essential in a “robust governance and control system at national level to protect the financial interests of the Union”.

She confirmed that the commission has been holding discussions with Poland on the implementation of milestones for reforming the judicial system, “focusing on the disciplinary regime” for judges.

“Poland would need to demonstrate that these milestones have been fulfilled before any disbursement [of funds] could take place,” she added, outlining that those reforms must satisfy the three objectives von der Leyen outlined in the European Parliament in October last year.

“First, the Disciplinary Chamber [of the Supreme Court] should be dismantled,” she wrote. Last year, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ordered the chamber to be suspended, but Poland has still not complied with that ruling and is facing daily fines of €1 million as a result.

“Second, the disciplinary regime applicable to judges must be reformed…ensuring that neither requests to the Court of Justice of the EU for preliminary rulings nor the content of judicial decisions can constitute a basis for disciplinary sanctions,” continued von der Leyen.

Finally, “judges affected by decisions of the Disciplinary Chamber should benefit from the possibility to be reinstated”, she concluded.

Poland’s ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government has frequently been at loggerheads with Brussels over its overhaul of the judicial system since it came to power in 2015. A number of court rulings have found its actions to have violated national and European law.

PiS has denied that its reforms threaten the rule of law, and argues that they are designed to improve the functioning and accountability of the judiciary. It claims that the EU is victimising Poland for political and ideological reasons.

Warsaw has, however, accepted that in order to unlock its Covid recovery funds, further reforms – including the abolition of the disciplinary chamber – are needed. Parliament is currently discussing such proposals, including one submitted by President Andrzej Duda.

Opposition figures and some experts have warned, however, that even if the government abolishes the disciplinary chamber for judges, it is likely to replace it with another body that could also be used to place political pressure on the judiciary.

Government spokesman Piotr Müller said last week that payment of the EU funds is likely to take place around September, as the process of affirming implementation of the milestones will continue through July and August.

Although “negotiations on the National Recovery Fund are complete…unfortunately European bureaucracy, the European mills grind a little longer,” Müller told Wirtualna Polska.

Main image credit: European Parliament/Flickr (under CC BY 2.0)

Ben Koschalka

Ben Koschalka is a translator and senior editor at Notes from Poland. Originally from Britain, he has lived in Kraków since 2005.