Poland set to unlock EUR 36bn in COVID recovery funds frozen over dispute – report

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The European Commission (EC) is about to release the EUR 36bn Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) funds to Poland that were suspended over disagreements regarding the independence of the country’s judiciary.

The EU will release the grants and loans on condition that Poland dismantles its disciplinary judicial chamber and reinstates the judges it has expelled. 

“We are finalising our work with Poland on milestones and targets,” an EC source told politico.eu, which predicted the release of funds within a fortnight.

The EU has committed to EUR 723.8bn across the bloc to finance pandemic recovery, consisting of EUR 338bn in grants and EUR 385.8bn in loans.

Analysis by European economic think tank Bruegel shows Poland has allocated EUR 13.49bn of its EU pandemic-recovery funding to renewables and clean technology, or 37.5% of the budget, as per Warsaw’s RRP. By way of comparison, Latvia has allocated only EUR 80mn, or 4.4%, of its RRP to green tech.

The development may also unblock a plan for a 15% global minimum tax, which Poland earlier vetoed.