In a joint press conference held in Brussels with Commission head Ursula von der Leyen on Friday morning, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that Poland is about to receive the first batch of the long-awaited EU funds from the country’s National Recovery Plan (referred to in Poland as KPO).

The European Commission (EC) announced its readiness to provide Poland with €5billion in pre-financing to accelerate Poland’s progressive decarbonisation process. The final, corrected application for the KPO for a total amounting to €60 billion was sent to the EC by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on 31 August 2023. 

In November 2023, the EC said it had assessed Poland’s amendments positively. The amendments included, among other things, an additional €23 billion in loans. This paved the way for Poland to receive the €5 billion pre-financing. Poland’s €59.8 billion KPO is divided in loans (€34.5 billion) and grants (€25.3 billion). The whole plan covers a total of 55 reforms and 56 different investments. 

The EC assured that the freezing of the funds in the case of Poland was due to breaches of the rule of law by the Polish government. Donald Tusk, having been in office for less than three days, did not have the time to implement the required reforms. 

Nevertheless, his mere coming back to power revealed that either Tusk possesses a lightning-quick ability to make the rule of law be respected again or that the alleged violation of the rule of law was not the reason for the funds being denied to Poland until now in the first place. 

Image: X (@tvp_info)

Author: Sébastien Meuwissen