Poland’s prime minister has hit out at a proposed new mechanism to decide how much cash EU member states receive from Brussels as a „fundamental violation” of the rule of law.

Mateusz Morawiecki’s comments, in an interview for the Thursday edition of a German newspaper, were the latest broadside from Warsaw over plans to link access to EU funds with respect for the so called „rule of law”. Warsaw, along with Budapest, has threatened to veto the bloc’s 2021-2027 budget over the new mechanism, which was put forward last month during the German presidency of the EU.

In the article, the PM said, „this mechanism may be used in a very arbitrary and politically motivated way… it is a mechanism bypassing the [EU] treaties. A mechanism which is supposed to guarantee the observance of the rule of law is itself a fundamental violation of the very same rule of law.”

Source – Polskie Radio

The European Commission said on Thursday it was moving to follow up on an infringement procedure against Poland to protect the independence of the country’s judges.

The European Union’s executive said it has decided to send an additional letter of formal notice to Poland regarding the continued functioning of a disciplinary chamber within the country’s Supreme Court. The Polish government has one month to reply to the additional Letter of Formal Notice, the EU executive also said.

Source – Polskie Radio

The Polish central bank’s rate-setting Monetary Policy Council left interest rates unchanged this week, keeping the reference rate at a historically low 0.1 percent.

Earlier this year, the council decided on a string of rate cuts amid a coronavirus epidemic which has dented the economy. On March 17, in its first change to interest rates in five years, the Monetary Policy Council lowered the reference rate from 1.5 percent to 1.0 percent.

Poland on Wednesday became the fifth country in the European Union, after France, Spain, Italy and Germany, to record more than 1 million confirmed COVID-19 infections as it struggles to contain a second wave of the coronavirus.

Source – Polskie Radio

Small investors who were duped into buying into the doomed Amber Gold Ponzi scheme that ran out of Gdańsk between 2009 and 2012 may finally see a small fraction of their losses returned to them it has been announced.

After more than eight years the bankruptcy proceedings of the Amber Gold financial pyramid which sank hundreds of millions worth of invested Polish złoty are coming to an end. The official receiver has already sold the last part of the company’s assets and has stipulated that small investors, numbering around 19,000 people will receive a mere 10% of their investment back to them. The creators of the scheme are currently serving up to 15 years in prison for fraud…

Sources – trojmiasto.pl

Weather

Today will be a grey drizzly day with a moderate breeze and temperatures reaching a paltry 4 degrees centigrade (39 degrees Fahrenheit) during the day, dropping to 2 degrees overnight. Saturday looks like being sunnier day with temperatures reaching a pleasant 9 degrees centigrade during the day, and 5 degrees overnight.

MC/am