Page 52 - bne magazine July 2022_20220704

52 I Central Europe bne July 2022
President Duda meeting the Slovak President Zuzana Caputova last month in Bratislava.
"We should not accept merely small, inadequate cosmetic changes to Poland’s seriously politicised legal system in exchange for the EU funds. We won’t be able to stand up to autocrats abroad by placating those who unravel democracy at home," Renew Europe said.
The Commission insists that Poland would not receive any money without meeting the required milestones.
Poland had leveraged its veto power to soften the Commission’s stance, as it kept blocking a political agreement over global corporate tax reform. Poland was also able to use the good reputation it has won in harbouring Ukrainian refugees and acting as a supply base
for Western aid to Ukraine.
Poland would apply for the first payout from the recovery fund as soon as July, the government pledged.
Poland is looking to receive €2.8bn in grants and €1.3bn in loans this year. The funds would help finance the development of renewable energy sources, build more kindergartens, improve internet access, and upgrade railway infrastructure.
However, critics have argued that the changes were only a smokescreen designed to dupe the Commission. Critics say that the new chamber is just a superficial reform, as the risk remains that appointments to it will come from the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS), another compromised body in the Polish judiciary.
Von der Leyen is already facing questions on the deal with Poland.
The Commission was not unanimous
in approval of the release of the funds, with Vice Presidents Margrethe Vestager and Frans Timmermans reportedly voting against.
"Our group urgently demands
a detailed explanation from European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen," Renew Europe, a centrist group in the European Parliament, said in
a statement on June 1.
Estonia’s PM kicks Centre party out of governing coalition
Linas Jegelevicius in Vilnius
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has pulled the plug on her liberal Reform Party’s fractious coalition with the populist centre-left Centre Party, claiming that she needs to
form a new government to handle the challenge of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
"At the present moment, more than ever, Estonia needs a functioning government based on common values. The security situation in Europe does not give me
any opportunity as prime minister to
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continue cooperation with the Centre Party, which, against the backdrop of its internal division, is unable to put Estonia's interests above the interests of the party and its various wings," Kallas said.
Kallas, leader of the Reform Party, announced on the afternoon of June 3 that she had asked the president to dismiss the Centre Party ministers, and has made a proposal to opposition parties Isamaa and the Social
Democratics to start coalition talks, according to BNS, a Baltic news wire service. The president has signed the request.
The 16-month Reform-Centre party coalition has been hampered by worse and worse squabbling over recent months, ahead of a general election scheduled for next March. The Centre party had repeatedly proposed measures, such as increased child support, to help Estonians cope with