Poland’s Access to €75 Billion on the Line in Judiciary Dispute

  • EU budget funds at risk as well as post-pandemic aid
  • Changes in judiciary in limbo after Duda’s submission to court

Euro symbol door handles inside Poland's central bank building in Warsaw.

Photographer: John Guillemin/Bloomberg 

Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

Poland stands to lose out on more than €75 billion ($82 billion) in European Union budget funding if it fails to approve legislation giving its judiciary more independence, a process that was thrown into limbo last month.

The European Commission had already made the legislation a condition for more than €35 billion in post-pandemic assistance, a separate pot of financing. But the EU’s executive arm is also tying it to so-called cohesion funds laid out in the bloc’s 2021-2027 budget, according to people familiar with the funding decision, who declined to be named.