Poland’s Recovery Funds at risk as EU Commission delays payments

The recovery money for Poland under the Recovery and Resilience Plan – an estimated €35 billion to €49 billion – may be endangered due to delays in launching payments by the European Commission, according to estimations by the CRIDO business consulting company.

The European Commission has long frozen recovery funds for Poland because of concerns about the rule of law, mainly due to changes in the judicial system by the previous nationalist Law and Justice (PiS, ECR) government.

When the new pro-EU broad coalition (EPP/S&D/Renewal/Left) led by Donald Tusk promised to reverse the most controversial PiS changes, and Justice Minister Adam Bodnar (Civic Coalition, EPP) presented his action plan to restore judicial independence in Poland, which was welcomed by the EU Council, the Commission agreed to release the payments.

However, due to the long delay, most of the investments and reforms included in the Polish Recovery and Resilience Plan (KPO), previously approved by the EU executive, are at risk of not being completed on time, which would mean that Poland would lose EU funding for these projects.

“We are two years behind schedule in the recovery plan. (…) We are fully aware of this, which is why we immediately sent payment requests,” Deputy Minister of Development Funds and Regional Policy Jan Szyszko told Onet news outlet.

In general, 30 out of 41 investments, with a total cost of 50, Poland is asking the Commission to allow a revision of the recovery plan, as confirmed by CRIDO.

“We will immediately start the process of renegotiating the KPO,” said Szyszko.

There are 260 billion zlotys (over €60 billion) on the table, and Poland will do everything to “most if not all the money (allocated to the country),” he insisted.

“That’s what this review is for. We will talk to the European Commission about changes allowing us to invest these funds. These changes will affect each of the main components of the KPO,” the minister said.

Asked by Euractiv about the possibility of the Commission extending the deadlines for completing investments under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, MEP Jan Olbrycht (Civic Platform, EPP), a member of the European Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee (CONT), ruled out such a scenario.

“There have already been other countries asking for this, and the Commission said ‘no,’ as it concerns new debts, which the Commission is rejecting for the time being,” he said.

However, he believes that Poland could agree with the Commission on the changes to the recovery plan, provided that a comprehensive review of the plan is carried out, including the investments already started by local governments.

“This will be difficult, as there is already a two-year delay in the implementation of the plan,” Olbrycht told Euractiv, adding that the government would have to provide the Commission with “good and reliable arguments” that changes in the recovery plan are needed.

“This Commission does not treat the new (Polish) government in a very much different way than it treated the previous cabinet.”

(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | Euractiv.pl)