Polish Briefing: Poland maintains its opposition to combining climate neutrality with the JET Fund

What goes on in Poland on the 21st of July.

Poland maintains its opposition to combining climate neutrality with the JET Fund

The fourth day of negotiations on the new EU budget for 2021-2027 and the Fund for the Reconstruction of Europe took place in Brussels. So far, heads of state have discussed the size of the budget and resources. Poland maintains its opposition to linking payments from the Just Transition Fund with the commitment to achieve the goal of climate neutrality at the national level.

– We are entering the decisive phase of negotiation. We will soon be able to assess the different complexities of the negotiating proposals. These are multilateral negotiations. The basic parameter forced by the economical countries, the amount negotiated for further talks is EUR 390 billion in subsidies. This part about credits, subsidies is a kind of debt incurred by the EU. Previously, it was 500 billion euros. The injection of these funds for investments is much smaller than before. Poland, together with the Visegrad Group, is closer to the position of the southern and northern countries. For it to be acceptable to Poland, it is important that there is no discretionary assessment of the rule of law and climate negotiations – Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told journalists.

The President of the EU Council Charles Michel presented last Friday a compromise proposal for the next draft budget of the European Union for 2021-2027. One of the novelties that appeared in the proposal is linking the possibility of using the Just Transition Fund provided that the goal of climate neutrality by 2050 is supported at the national level, and not at the Community level, as was planned so far. The Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland emphasized that there are no grounds for such a formulation of payments for the energy transition. – In the conclusions of December 2019, the goal of neutrality was to be agreed at the EU level. Now, we cannot agree that payments to each country should be made conditional on a declaration of consent to this goal by each country, including those that have not adopted such a target so that it is reflected in the conclusions of the European Council, he said.