Minister Piotr Nowak: There is political consent in the European Commission to launch the KPO

The Minister of Development and Technology, Piotr Nowak, announced on Tuesday late in the evening that the National Reconstruction Plan will be launched “at any moment”. According to the Polish Press Agency, he referred to three EU commissioners who were to assure that “there is political consent to the National Reconstruction Plan in the European Commission”. Donald Tusk announced that on Wednesday he would go to Brussels to “finalize the issue of Polish money”. He did not specify exactly what funds he meant.

National Reconstruction Plan. Minister Nowak: There is political agreement

Minister Nowak said that Poland fulfilled the condition of the European Commission, which made the approval of the KPO payment conditional on the draft act liquidating the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court. – Such a project was submitted to the Sejm – said Nowak.

Indeed, on the second day of the Sejm session this week, MPs will start work on draft amendments to the law on the Supreme Court. However, there are several competing proposals in this matter. Project submitted by Andrzej Duda It provides, inter alia, for the liquidation of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court and its replacement with the Chamber of Professional Responsibility. Law and Justice proposal in turn, it assumes that the disciplinary responsibility of judges will be excluded from the competence of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court and transferred to the competence of the Supreme Court as a whole, which will consider them in a randomly selected panel from among all judges of this court. The Disciplinary Chamber will adjudicate on matters relating to other legal professions.

This is not the end because Solidarna Polska also submitted a separate proposal. The draft provides, inter alia, for the liquidation of the existing chambers of the Supreme Court – Civil, Criminal, Labor and Social Security, Extraordinary Control and Public Affairs and Disciplinary. Two new chambers are to be created in their place – the Chamber of Private Law and the Chamber of Public Law. He is also in the Sejm a joint project of the members of the Civic Coalition and the Left amendments to the Act on the National Council of the Judiciary, the Act on the Supreme Court and certain other acts. As stated in the explanatory memorandum, it is about “fulfilling the obligations imposed on Poland by the judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union”.

KPO still without approval. The problem is the issue of the rule of law

Let us recall – Poland is one of the last countries that still has not received money from the European Union Reconstruction Fund. Our government did not want to agree to the introduction of the conditionality mechanism, which it referred to the Court of Justice of the EU. However, the CJEU rejected the complaint in mid-February. The National Reconstruction Plan presented by Poland (its preparation was obligatory for all member states that wanted to receive funds from the EU Reconstruction Fund) was presented last year.

The station’s journalists learned that the European Commission is getting details on this matter with Poland. It was already indicated then that the condition was the liquidation of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court by PiS. It was also indicated that the European Commission is not planning to wait for the unification of legislative projects that appeared in Poland regarding the liquidation of the Disciplinary Chamber. The liquidation of the Disciplinary Chamber and the reform of the judiciary are to be included in the text of the KPO as one of the stages to be implemented. Its execution is to be a condition for receiving the first tranche. On the other hand, all funds from the Reconstruction Fund are to be dependent on the implementation of specific reforms and investments. Poland must therefore promise that it will find a parliamentary majority that will allow it to be introduced. The final decision on the KPO is to be made by the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

The government informed that Poland would receive PLN 770 billion (EUR 171 billion) of EU funds, which would include KPO funds and around 113 billion from the long-term EU fund for 2021-2027.

With KPO, Poland applied for EUR 23.9 billion available under grants and EUR 11.5 billion from the loan part. Funds from the KPO are to be used, inter alia, by to reform the labor market, support for housing, change the financing of hospitals, or introduce new types of enterprises in Poland.