When will we receive the first money from KPO? The deadline has passed
The government expects the first money from the KPO in April – writes “Rzeczpospolita”. It is to be EUR 7 billion, which was recently requested by the Minister of Funds and Regional Policy. This year, Poland may receive a total of EUR 23 billion.
As “Rzeczpospolita” writes, the government is counting on the first money from the National Reconstruction Plan (KPO) in April. It is EUR 7 billion, which was requested by the Minister of Funds and Regional Policy, Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, in December last year.
Funds from KPO in spring?
The European Commission is now assessing whether Poland has met the conditions imposed on it. According to the newspaper’s findings, the Minister of Justice, Adam Bodnar, is in constant contact with Brussels and keeps it informed about progress in restoring the rule of law in Poland.
EU Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders, who is visiting Poland today, met with the Minister of Justice, and meetings are also planned with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Radosław Sikorski and the Minister for European Affairs Adam Szłapka. Reynders is to talk to the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, among others. on Poland’s compliance with the judgments of the Court of Justice of the EU and the European Convention on Human Rights, and with the Minister for European Affairs on progress in achieving milestones in the independence of the judiciary under the KPO.
As noted by “Rzeczpospolita”, Poland cannot formally exchange milestones with the KPO because the act agreed by the PiS government and the European Commission was blocked by the president and the Constitutional Tribunal. Therefore, it must use other methods to achieve the same goal – dismantling the system of disciplining judges for being politically inconvenient questions or judgments.
– Stopping the harassment of judges is not a problem for us. Our ambitions go further than milestones. We agreed with the European Commission that the transfer of money will depend on the government’s actions, and not on what the president will do – a Polish source tells the newspaper unofficially.
Will we receive EUR 23 billion this year?
The daily’s interlocutor expects that Poland will receive a total of EUR 23 billion from the KPO this year. In addition to the EUR 7 billion for which the application is already being analyzed by Brussels, there will be three more payment applications. The total amount of the initial KPO amounts to EUR 35 billion, of which EUR 24 billion are subsidies and over EUR 11.5 billion – loans. The PiS government additionally applied for EUR 23 billion in loans and this application was accepted at the end of 2023.
