Polish top court delays sitting crucial to EU recovery funds disbursement

Polish Constitutional Tribunal (TK) has postponed until September 7 a sitting seen as key to bringing Poland closer to finally receiving EU post-pandemic money within the framework of its national recovery plan (KPO).

The TK has not yet received a formal stance of the Sejm, lower house, on the issue that was supposed to be the subject matter of the sitting, Bartlomiej Sochanski, the judge presiding over the sitting, said on Wednesday.

The Tribunal was supposed to pass on Wednesday a decision on the number of judges considered necessary to constitute the so-called full line-up.

Should that full line-up be reduced, the Tribunal would find it easier to assemble in order to decide whether Poland's amended Supreme Court bill is constitutional, following a motion filed back in January by President Andrzej Duda. 

If that bill were declared constitutional, the president would be able to sign it and Poland may then file a motion with the European Commission for the funds' disbursement, as justice system reform was one of the milestones Poland was supposed to fulfil to get the money. 

But the Tribunal might also say that the legislation is constitutional only in some aspects, or that it is unconstitutional altogether