EU to unlock billions for Poland, but no payouts before judiciary fixed - officials

The European Union's chief executive is likely to announce on Thursday the formal approval of billions of euros in COVID-19 economic recovery funds for Poland, but the money will not flow until Warsaw makes reforms to the judiciary, EU officials said.

The European Union's chief executive is likely to announce on Thursday the formal approval of billions of euros in COVID-19 economic recovery funds for Poland, but the money will not flow until Warsaw makes reforms to the judiciary, EU officials said. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will travel to Warsaw to announce the deal, they said.

"The approval is likely this afternoon or tomorrow morning," one senior EU official said. The Commission has long accused Poland's ruling nationalists of undercutting democracy and it froze Warsaw's access to nearly 24 billion euros ($25.6 bln) in grants and 11.5 billion euros in cheap loans over changes they made to the country's judiciary.

The ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party created a disciplinary chamber for judges that the top EU court struck down as illegal because it fails to provide safeguards against political meddling and hence violates a central democratic tenet. In power since 2015, PiS has also put media and NGOs under more state control, restricted the rights of women, gays and migrants, drawing criticism from rights groups and international watchdogs.

Warsaw's ties with the Commission grew increasingly strained but the calculus changed after Russia's February invasion of Ukraine, a neighbour of Poland. Warsaw won praise for taking in some 3.5 million Ukrainian refugees. The Commission since came under pressure to unlock the funds.

To clear the way, Poland's parliament voted last Thursday in favour of a bill that would replace the disciplinary chamber for judges with a new body. Poland must also start reinstalling judges who had been dismissed by the contested chamber before any money is actually paid out, EU officials said.

However, the Renew group, the liberal faction within the European Parliament, criticised rewarding Poland while the PiS government was "consistently trashing...the rule of law" "We should not accept merely small, inadequate cosmetic changes to Poland's seriously politicised legal system in exchange for the EU funds," Renew said in a statement.

($1 = 0.9328 euros) (Writing by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Angus MacSwan)