The European Parliament must explain the issue of blocking post-pandemic funds for Poland, says MP Waldemar Buda, a development minister in the last conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party government.
“In the next term of office of the European Parliament, a special commission must be established to explain how it is possible that funds from the National Recovery Plan (KPO) for Poland were blocked for a year and a half,” said Buda on Monday.
The blocking of EU funds was widely believed to be tied to pressure applied by Brussels to bring down the conservative government in the lead up to national elections. With the new left-liberal government in power, the EU has raced to send the funds to Poland.
The current regional policy and funds minister, Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, announced on Monday that Poland received an EU payment from the first post-pandemic funds application of approximately €6 billion. This transfer has been labeled the biggest in history by mainstream media in Poland.
Former development minister in the PiS government, Waldemar Buda, was asked on Monday at a press conference in the Sejm whether he would apologize for the years when funds from the EU did not reach Poland.
He replied that during the next term, the European Parliament “will have to explain how it was possible that collusion between the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the candidate for prime minister in Poland, Donald Tusk, led to a year and a half of delays. A special commission must be established at the level of the European Parliament to explain this,” he said.
The delay, according to Buda, will mean that Poland is unlikely to use up its full allocation of funding.
“People who blocked the funds should be held to account,” he said.
PiS politicians claim that the European Commission has been withholding payments from the National Recovery Plan (KPO) for political reasons. Decision-makers in Brussels wanted to influence the outcome of the elections in Poland in October 2023, in which the alliance of left-liberal parties supported by Brussels won.
The conditions for paying the funds had actually been met by June 2022 when the Polish president’s proposed legislation on judicial reform had been passed. The fact that they continued to be held up is because of an arrangement between Donald Tusk and Ursula von der Leyen, claims Buda.
Poland is to receive €59.8 billion (268 billion zlotys), including €25.27 billion (113.28 billion zlotys) in the form of subsidies, and €34.54 billion (154.81 billion zlotys) in preferential loans. In line with EU objectives, a significant proportion of the funds are to be spent on climate goals (46.6 percent), digital transformation (21.3 percent), and social reforms (22.3 percent).
