WARSAW (Reuters) – European Commission representatives will on Friday announce that Brussels has unblocked COVID-19 recovery funds for Poland, its prime minister said on Thursday.
“Tomorrow we will hear from European Union representatives that Poland has finally had National Recovery Plan funds unblocked,” Donald Tusk told parliament.
European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen plans to
visit Warsaw on Friday along with Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo.
Poland’s previous nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party government was embroiled in a dispute with the EU over judicial reforms and alleged erosion of rule-of-law standards, resulting in billions of EU funds for Poland being frozen.
The new pro-EU government led by Tusk has pledged to regain access to the money by shoring up the rule of law, but faces resistance from PiS supporters and allies, including President Andrzej Duda and some high-profile judges.
(Reporting by Alan Charlish, Pawel Florkiewicz and Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk; editing by Mark Heinrich)
