The EU will soon reach an agreement with the Poles: Hungary can be left alone
The debate in Brussels is ongoing and concerns over the independence of the Polish judiciary have prevented the European Commission from accepting the Polish recovery plan, meaning that Poland has not yet received its share of EUR 36 billion from the pandemic mitigation fund. Part of the amount consists of non-repayable funds and the other half of soft loans.
The European Commission had the biggest problem with the reform of the Polish judiciary, making the adoption of the recovery plan subject to three conditions: the abolition of the disciplinary chamber, the reinstatement of dismissed judges, and the reform of the disciplinary system.
According to an EU source who told Politico, the parties agreed on all three issues, however, the disbursement can only take place if Poland proves that it has actually implemented the requested changes.
If the European Commission adopts the Polish recovery plan, even the EU will have to say yes to it by a qualified majority. Polish Minister for EU Funds Waldemar Buda said on Tuesday that Poland would ask for the money in July.
In addition to Poland, the Commission did not accept Hungary’s recovery plan, also citing concerns about the rule of law, and Poland was one of Hungary’s allies in temporarily blocking the entire EU recovery plan, which weakened the rule of law somewhat.
With the adoption of the Polish plan, the Commission may have political motivations: during the Russo-Ukrainian war, when the Hungarian-Polish alliance weakened, and since the invasion, the committee may try to end the Hungarian-Polish conflict of interest by agreeing to Polish unity in the EU. In the matter of the rule of law, the basis for cooperation between Poles and Hungarians will thus disappear, at least temporarily.
In addition to the Hungarian and Polish recovery plans, the Dutch plan has not even been adopted by the Commission, but there are no concerns about the rule of law: the Dutch have not yet submitted it to the Commission. summary page according to. The Netherlands, together with several other members (Finland, Denmark, Sweden), did not support the creation of a recovery fund for the first time.
According to the Brussels paper, the Polish agreement on the recovery plan could also promote a deal on a global minimum tax, which Poland has also blocked so far. The EU says Poles blocking their recovery money do not support the idea of a global minimum tax, but Warsaw says the two have nothing to do with each other. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who is on a European tour the other day, also visited Warsaw to lift the Polish blockade on the global minimum tax.
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