Poland's EU cohesion funds stalled until conditions met says commissioner

The European Commission (EC) will not pay any Polish invoices for projects financed by the bloc's cohesion funding for 2021-2027 until Warsaw has met all the funding conditions set by Brussels, the EU commissioner for cohesion and reforms has said.

EU Commissioner Elisa Ferreira told the Rzeczpospolita daily in an interview published on Tuesday that negotiations were still ongoing over Warsaw's compliance with rule-of-law principles. She said it was a matter of constant dialogue but that the specifics fell outside her scope of responsibility, explaining that Didier Reynders, the commissioner for justice, and Johannes Hahn, the commissioner for budget and administration, were responsible for the issue.

She said the problem involved the understanding of the principle of the rule of law, which is why talks are still in progress, adding that she had to wait for a 'green light' from Reynders and Hahn that Poland had met the conditions.

Ferreira said financial settlements for the 2014-2020 funding period were in no way threatened. She also explained that although some money had been paid in advance for the 2021-2027 funding period, in order to pay any invoices received for projects already carried out in Poland, the EC must confirm that the 'problems' had been solved.