Poland’s government intends to sue the European Commission at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in order to “force” Brussels to release €36 billion in Polish funds if it continues “illegally” blocking them over rule-of-law concerns.
During a meeting with supporters of the ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party on Sunday, PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński announced that they were considering taking legal action over the frozen post-pandemic recovery funds (known by their Polish initials of KPO).
“We have undertaken the projects planned in the KPO,” said Kaczyński, who holds no formal government role but, as PiS chairman, is Poland’s de facto leader. “Since we have an approved plan, they should pay us. Perhaps we will bring lawsuits over this money.”
The commission’s continued blocking of the funds “is obviously illegal”, he added, quoted by RMF24. “I don’t think we can get this money now because there is no point making further concessions…[But] we will get the money sooner or later.”
On Monday, deputy foreign minister Marcin Przydacz confirmed to RMF that the government was considering legal action, though said that for now it was still hoping to obtain the money through “constructive dialogue”.
“Poland has fulfilled all possible commitments it has made” to unblock the funds, claimed Przydacz. “We hope that in the political discussion it will be possible to work out a solution… But if it proves impossible, we will apply to the CJEU to force the European Commission to comply with the law.”
Przydacz said that Poland would push ahead with implementing its plans under the KPO, “then we will send invoices to Brussels so that it can pay money”. But “if there is no such money, we will go to court…Our lawyers are working on this.”
The deputy minister warned that Poland could even withdraw from the EU’s recovery fund altogether. However, both he and Kaczyński indicated that they believe the money will be unblocked after next year’s elections in Poland, because the commission is currently using the issue to influence the outcome.
Poland's ruling party has condemned the "scandalous", "anti-democratic" remarks about Italy, Hungary and Poland by @EU_Commission chief @vonderleyen this week.
They accuse her of "blackmail and interference in the democratic process" of member states https://t.co/TMrqyIYFHf
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) September 24, 2022
In May, Poland and the commission agreed a series of “milestones” in order to unblock the funds. They related in particular to undoing actions that had compromised the independence of the Polish judiciary.
The Polish government claims it has met its obligations, in particular by abolishing the disciplinary chamber for judges. However, in July European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that Poland had not yet met all the requirements, a position that she repeated last week.
As a result, Kaczyński declared in August that, because the EU had “broken the agreement”, Poland “has no reason to fulfil our obligations towards the EU”. He suggested that Brussels is using the issue as part of a “German-Russian plan to rule over Europe” by installing an opposition government that would “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
Main image credit: Ministry of the Interior and Administration (under CC BY 3.0 PL)
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.
