Amendments to Act on Supreme Court may not be enough to mobilize EU funds for Poland
18:14
On May 26 the Sejm (lower house of the Polish Parliament) passed a bill on the Supreme Court which, among other things, provides for the liquidation of the Supreme Court's Disciplinary Chamber. However, it is unclear whether this will be enough for EU funds to start flowing to Poland.
The European Commission considers the abolition of the Supreme Court's Disciplinary Chamber as one of the conditions for releasing EU funds that Poland is entitled to under the fund designed to rebuild the economy after the coronavirus pandemic. Other conditions, known as milestones, include the government's commitment to reform the disciplinary system and reinstate judges who were illegally dismissed.
It is true that the head of the Commission has already announced her visit to Warsaw in a week's time (on the 2nd of June), but as the deputy head of the European Commission Dana Spinant warned on Wednesday (the 25th of May), the condition of Ursula von der Leyen's arrival is the completion of "the procedure of adopting the Polish Plan for Reconstruction and Resilience" by that time. Since so far it was the EC chief who solemnly informed about the EC decisions on launching National Reconstruction Plans in each of the EU capitals affected by the decision, it may be for this purpose that von der Leyen will appear in Warsaw next week.
