Sharjah24 – AFP: The European Commission on Wednesday approved Poland's 35.4-billion-euro ($38 billion) post-Covid economy recovery package, which had been held up for more than a year over concerns about judicial independence.
However it said in a statement that disbursement comes with strings attached, namely that "Poland must adopt a reform of the disciplinary regime for judges", in line with EU demands.
"The European Commission has today given a positive assessment of Poland's recovery and resilience plan," the EU executive said after a meeting of the bloc's commissioners.
Some of the commissioners -- including influential executive vice presidents Margrethe Vestager, a centrist, and social democrat Frans Timmermans -- opposed the decision.
Two more commissioners who were not present for the vote -- itself a rare mechanism on a body that usually operates by consensus -- also expressed reservations, European sources said.
The statement stressed that Poland had committed to "strengthening certain aspects of the independence of the judiciary" -- even though those changes have not as yet been codified.
The decision seeks to move past an impasse between Brussels and Warsaw that had festered while the EU strived to maintain unity to address the war in Ukraine.
Poland, which borders Ukraine, is on the frontline of the EU solidarity effort.
It is the main entry point into the bloc for the nearly seven million Ukrainians who have fled their war-torn country.
And it serves as the logistics hub for weapons sent from EU countries and the United States into Ukraine.
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