Morawiecki: I don't think EU funds for Poland are at risk

Citing a flawed judiciary, the Brussels-based European Commission has already frozen some 35 billion euros assigned to Poland from a shared economic EU stimulus plan aimed at helping economies recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I do not think that the funds from the EU - the cohesion funds, the agricultural funds, and the funds for innovations and others - are at risk," Mateusz Morawiecki said during a news conference.

"The first funds are already flowing in. Maybe these are not large funds...most likely in the next few months, most likely the first advanced payments will be released," he said.

The Commission on Monday (October 17) warned that nearly all of Poland's so-called cohesion funds, from the bloc's 2021-27 shared budget, are also at stake given that Warsaw is not meeting democratic standards on judicial independence.

The move was welcomed by Germany’s EU Affairs minister, Anna Luehrmann, as she arrived for a meeting of EU ministers in Luxembourg on Tuesday (October 18).

"We welcome in principle that the EU Commission is using all means now available to protect the rule of law in the EU," she told reporters.

Austrian EU Affairs Minister Karoline Edtstadler echoed the words of her colleague, saying there should be "no compromise on the rule of law."

"I have always said that when it comes to money, people also move when it comes to reforms, and that is why I think it is right and important to keep at it," she said.

European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova said she hoped the Polish position would move "in the direction of getting the support."

In power since 2015, the ruling populist Law and Justice (PiS) party has overhauled Poland's courts. The changes have included some cases of judges critical of the government being sidelined and allies promoted to top positions.

The EU, as well as many international watchdogs and rights groups, has said PiS has damaged democratic checks and balances by demolishing the independence of courts in the formerly communist country of 38 million people, the biggest on the bloc's eastern rim.

Since joining the EU in 2004, Poland has been the top beneficiary of the bloc's aid.

But in recent years, more nationalistic, eurosceptic and anti-German rhetoric from the PiS has increasingly put Warsaw on a collision course with Brussels.