EU commission approves unlocking €137 billion for Poland

DPA
·1 min read
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Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, stands in the plenary chamber of the European Parliament and speaks. A central point of the debate was the EU's defense policy. Philipp von Ditfurth/dpa
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, stands in the plenary chamber of the European Parliament and speaks. A central point of the debate was the EU's defense policy. Philipp von Ditfurth/dpa
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The European Commission on Thursday formally approved the release of €137 billion ($149 billion) of European Union funds withheld from Poland due to rule of law concerns.

The money comes from two sources: €76.5 billion from a development budget controlled by the commission and almost €60 billion from a post-Covid recovery fund. The latter still needs to be approved by EU member states.

The commission cut off funding to Poland in 2022, on the grounds that court reforms brought in by the then-incumbent government compromised judicial independence. Poland's new government, led by former European Council president Donald Tusk, is undoing those changes in a bid to comply with EU standards and restore the country's access to the EU budget.

The grand total of €137 billion includes both overdue payments that were blocked and payments due in the next few years, which would also have been blocked had the commission not decided to restore Poland's funding.

Commission president Ursula von der Leyen had announced that the decision was coming at a press briefing in Warsaw on Friday.