Poland receives largest ever tranche of EU money as first unfrozen funds transferred

The transfer is the largest Poland has ever received in its 20 years of EU membership, says the government's minister for funds and regional policy, Katarzyna Pełczyńska.

"Being in the EU pays off, but the EU is not only about money, which our predecessors forgot," tweeted Pełczyńska. "We are united by the values [of] democracy, equal opportunities, rule of law, civil liberties."

PiS, however, claims that Brussels froze the money during its rule for political reasons, in the hope of bringing a more EU-friendly government to power. It argues that the funds have now been unfrozen despite Prime Minister Donald Tusk's new government not implementing the "milestones" previously outlined by the EU.

27 mld zł dla Polski z UE ⤵️

Przelane środki pochodzą z pierwszego wniosku o płatność z KPO. pic.twitter.com/jsidh1vRiL

— Kancelaria Premiera (@PremierRP) April 15, 2024

The money paid out today comes from Poland's first application to receive funds for its so-called National Reconstruction Plan (known as KPO in Polish).

That plan is an implementation of the EU's Recovery and Resilience Facility (RFF), a €648 billion programme to support member states' recovery from the crises caused by the COVID pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

In total, Poland has been allocated almost €60 billion from the RFF, including just over €25 billion in grants and €34.5 billion in preferential loans. In line with the EU's goals, 47% of the budget is allocated to climate aims, 22% to social reforms and 21% to digital transformation, reports broadcaster RMF.

According to Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, the first tranche of money includes 1.6 billion zloty for tackling air pollution; 720 million zloty for improving broadband access; 400 million zloty for rail and road infrastructure; 250 million zloty for diversifying agricultural supply chains; and 200 million zloty for nurseries.

The EU will unblock €137bn in funds it froze over rule-of-law concerns under the former PiS government, announced @vonderleyen on a visit to Warsaw.

She praised the steps taken by @donaldtusk's new government to restore the independence of the judiciaryhttps://t.co/gxIPdoL5GV

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) February 23, 2024

The minister added that, "to make up for the two years of delay" under the previous government, she will submit two further applications for funds simultaneously in August and hopes for the next payment to arrive by December.

By the end of this year, the government aims for Poland to have received €23 billion in total, says Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, cited by news website Interia.

The minister added that today's "transfer means that we have achieved the milestones and requirements related to the first payment application".

Justice Minister @Adbodnar has presented plans in Brussels to restore the rule of law by reversing violations by the former PiS government.

EU Commission Vice President @VeraJourova welcomed the move and pledged to help Poland exit the Article 7 procedurehttps://t.co/3qPDuJYUFG

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) February 20, 2024

However, PiS, which was in power from 2015 to the end of last year and is now the main opposition party, argues that the EU approved the release of funds before the new government has fully implemented the milestones PiS agreed with Brussels when it was in government.

Speaking on Saturday, former PiS Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said it was the fault of Tusk's Civic Platform (PO) party that the money had not arrived earlier because PO had been "putting sticks in the spokes and begging [European Commission President Ursula] von der Leyen not to pay".

Since joining the EU in May 2004, Poland has been the largest net recipient of EU funds. Between that year and 2022, it received over €232 billion from the EU budget while contributing around €77 billion.

➡️ To z winy PO pieniądze z KPO nie wpłynęły do Polski przez 1,5 roku.

To my na przełomie maja i czerwca 2022 r. przyjęliśmy ustawę, na podstawie której mamy teraz szansę na KPO. A te pieniądze, które już wpłynęły w ramach choćby RePower EU, wpłynęły dzięki nam. pic.twitter.com/EOxdI0Mvso

— Mateusz Morawiecki (@MorawieckiM) April 13, 2024

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Main image credit: Kiefer/Flickr (under CC BY-SA 2.0)

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.