Poland offers to amend law on Supreme Court to get EU funds

WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland will submit draft amendments to a law on its Supreme Court this week to fulfill requirements to receive EU recovery funds, Polish European Affairs Minister Szymon Szynkowski vel Sek said on Tuesday. 

Poland’s access to 23.9 billion euros ($25.38 billion) in grants and 11.5 billion euros in cheap loans had been blocked due to a dispute with Brussels over judicial independence. 

In June the European Commission said it was approving Poland’s recovery plan, but the money would not flow until Warsaw makes reforms to the judiciary. 

“Today, the draft amendment to the law on the Supreme Court will be submitted to the (parliament). It will fulfill the key milestones indicated by the European Commission in relation to the National Recovery Plan,” Szynkowski vel Sek told reporters.

The EU’s top court has demanded that Poland disband a controversial disciplinary chamber for judges and has imposed fines of 1 million euros a day on Poland for failing to do so. 

Warsaw has since replaced the chamber with a new body, but critics say the problem of judges’ independence being undermined has not been resolved.

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