The European Union on Friday announced the release of about $5.5 billion in aid to Poland, part of a total of about $65 billion in EU aid withheld from the nation during the previous Polish government amid concerns over its respect for the rule of law.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the release of the funds Friday at a news conference in Brussels alongside Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on the sidelines of an EU summit.
Tusk called the funds "a Christmas present."
"Not a small gift ... these are very important funds that will be used to improve our energy sovereignty," he said, referring to Poland's need to move away from dependence on Russian-provided fuel.
The money was released unconditionally as part of the EU program to ween the bloc off Russian fuel and fossil fuels in general, as part of the bloc's green transition.
But release of the balance of the aid funding — as part of the EU's COVID-recovery program — is contingent upon Poland reversing judicial reforms made under the right-wing Law and Justice Party, which took power in 2015. EU officials said those reforms weakened the nation's judiciary and failed to meet the bloc's democratic standards.
In an interview with Reuters earlier this week, Tusk, whose government was sworn in Wednesday, said that legislation to reverse the earlier reforms is in place and he was confident he could speed up the process.
Von der Leyen on Friday commended the actions that Tusk and his government had taken so far, saying she was hopeful the issues can be resolved quickly.
"For far too long, the concerns about the rule of law have hampered our capacity to help Poland modernize its economy and implement the twin transition with green and digital," von der Leyen said.
Tusk was first elected prime minister in 2007 and left Poland to become president of the European Council from 2014 to 2019. He then returned to Warsaw to again lead his Civic Platform party and successfully challenge the ruling right-wing Law and Justice Party in October's election.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
