• The European Commission has set out conditions for Poland to receive billions of euros
• Disbursement comes with strings attached, namely that Poland reform its judicial system.
• The decision seeks to move past the impasse between Brussels and Warsaw.

The EU Commission approved Poland’s 35.4 billion euro ($38 billion) post-Covid economic recovery package on Wednesday, which had been stalled for more than a year due to concerns about judicial independence.

However, it stated in a statement that the disbursement is subject to conditions, namely that “Poland must adopt a reform of the disciplinary regime for judges” in accordance with EU demands.

“The European Commission has today given a positive assessment of Poland’s recovery and resilience plan,” the EU executive said after a meeting of the bloc’s commissioners.

Some of the commissioners — including influential executive vice president Margrethe Vestager, a centrist, and social democrat Frans Timmermans — opposed the decision.

Two more commissioners who were not present for the vote — itself a rare mechanism on a body that usually operates by consensus — also expressed reservations, European sources said.

The statement stressed that Poland had committed to “strengthening certain aspects of the independence of the judiciary” — even though those changes have not as yet been codified.

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The decision seeks to move past an impasse between Brussels and Warsaw that had festered while the EU strived to maintain unity to address the war in Ukraine.

Poland, which borders Ukraine, is on the frontline of the EU solidarity effort.

It is the main entry point into the bloc for the nearly seven million Ukrainians who have fled their war-torn country.

And it serves as the logistics hub for weapons sent from EU countries and the United States into Ukraine.

Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen was to travel to Warsaw on Thursday to present the plan under which Poland would receive its billions from an EU coronavirus Recovery and Resilience Facility.

But the commission already declared in a statement that “before the first payment request… Poland must demonstrate” that it is meeting its commitments to its judiciary.

The requirements call for Poland to reverse moves by Warsaw’s populist government to subject judges to a disciplinary mechanism that has been rejected by the Court of Justice of the European Union.

In October, the court hit Poland with daily fines of one million euros for refusing to suspend the disciplinary chamber. The fines now amount to more than 200 million euros.

Polish President Andrzej Duda sought to draw a line under the dispute by putting forward a draft law to scrap the controversial chamber, which his country’s parliament adopted last week.

But the Polish senate is yet to approve the bill.

The opposition has called it an “illusion” while judges’ groups say it does not remove concerns about the politicization of the judiciary.

One condition for Poland to get its Covid recovery cash calls for judges’ disciplinary cases to be heard by a court compliant with EU law that is not the disciplinary chamber.

Another requirement is that judges who have already been subjected to disciplinary chamber rulings have the right to have the decision reviewed by an EU-compliant court “without delay.”

Furthermore, judges cannot face disciplinary proceedings for asking the EU Court of Justice to rule on specific issues.

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