Mateusz Morawiecki made the declaration in the southern city of Kraków on Saturday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Asked during a news conference when his government would apply for the EU funds, the prime minister replied: “We’ll wait for the Constitutional Tribunal to rule if this bill is fully compatible with our constitution.”
He added: “In the meantime, we’ll have constant dialogue with the European Commission that perhaps will result in us being able to submit an application earlier, but personally I don’t think it will happen. I believe that the best, safest way, is to wait until the bill returns from the Constitutional Tribunal.”
Morawiecki said he hoped this would "happen quickly.” He added that “the verdict of the Constitutional Tribunal is final, unshakeable.”
He stated: “If the Tribunal confirms that the bill is constitutional, the president will sign the bill and it will come into force. I can only say that I have confirmation from the European Commission that this bill fulfils the compromise we had struck with the European Commission and so then the funds under the National Recovery Plan may flow to Poland very quickly.”
Judicial overhaul
The planned judicial overhaul was voted through by the Polish parliament on February 8. The lower house, the Sejm, rejected all the amendments enacted earlier by the Senate, the upper house, in a 233 to 207 vote with 12 abstentions.
The bill then went to President Andrzej Duda for signing into law.
On February 10, the head of state announced he was referring the draft legislation to the Constitutional Tribunal to assess its compatibility with the Polish constitution.
On Saturday, Duda told reporters that the bill would be officially referred to the Constitutional Tribunal “in the coming days,” in line with “the timetable set out in the constitution.”
Billions in EU funds for Poland
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in December that his country’s dispute with the European Union over the rule of law must be resolved so that Poland could receive billions of euros from the bloc’s pandemic relief fund amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Morawiecki told reporters at the time: “The dispute with the European Commission must be resolved. Today, the real conflict is taking place to the east of Poland, while the [EU] funds from the National Recovery Plan mean more money for the Polish army.”
According to Poland's governing conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, the bill aims to change the rules for disciplining judges and testing their independence in line with the expectations of the European Commission, the executive arm of the 27-nation European Union of which Poland has been part since 2004.
Officials have told reporters that the legislation meets a key “milestone,” bringing Poland a step closer to receiving EUR 23.9 billion in grants and EUR 11.5 billion in loans from the EU’s pandemic relief fund under Poland's National Recovery Plan.
The Polish president said in December that the country should receive pandemic relief funding from the EU, and that he would support measures designed to help make it possible, but added that "such proposals must comply with the Polish constitution.”
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, money.pl