Andrzej Duda made the statement in an interview with private broadcaster Radio Zet on Monday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Asked if Poland would receive the EUR 23.9 billion in grants and EUR 11.5 billion in loans from the EU's pandemic relief fund, Duda replied: “It’s a political problem and today this problem is being used for political ends.”
The president added: “I myself took part in the negotiations at a time when me and my associates were drawing up the bill to revamp the Supreme Court, and introduce the new Chamber of Professional Responsibility, in line with the expectations of the Court of Justice of the European Union.”
“And as we can see, despite all the agreements, despite my talks, these agreements have been broken,” he stated.
“It turns out that for the European Commision, for its representatives and for certain politicians in the European institutions, the words that were said back then do not matter,” Duda stressed.
“And so unfortunately, this is brutal politics,” the president said in the interview.
Dispute with Brussels over recovery funds
The European Commission and the EU’s finance ministers in June approved Poland’s National Recovery Plan, which was necessary for the country to be able to receive EUR 23.9 billion in grants and EUR 11.5 billion in loans from the bloc's pandemic relief fund.
Brussels is demanding that Poland meet a series of rule-of-law “milestones” before these funds can be unlocked.
The Polish government, whose sweeping judicial changes have been criticised by the European Commission for undermining the independence of the country’s court system and violating EU standards, in mid-June scrapped a controversial disciplinary chamber for judges.
But Brussels is concerned that the chamber may be replaced by a similar, “politically controlled" institution, news outlets have reported.
The European Commission's chief, Ursula von der Leyen, has stated that Poland has not yet made enough progress to justify releasing a first instalment of pandemic relief funds, the PAP news agency reported.
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Source: PAP, prezydent.pl