Poland

WARSAW, Aug 28 (Reuters) - European judges' associations challenged in European Union's General Court a decision to approve Poland's recovery and resilience plan, they said in a statement on Sunday.

Poland's access to 23.9 billion euros ($23.8 billion) in grants and 11.5 billion euros in cheap loans had been blocked due to a dispute over judicial independence.

But in June the Commission said it was approving Poland's recovery plan, opening the way for Warsaw to get the cash. The move was approved by the Council of the EU, consisting of economy and finance ministers. 

WARSAW, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Finland's prime minister had good reason to go out and celebrate, because her country is joining NATO, her Polish counterpart said on Friday, backing Sanna Marin's right to party as she faces a storm of criticism at home over leaked videos of a night out.

Marin said on Friday she had taken a drugs test following the publication of video footage this week that showed her partying with friends. She vowed she had never used illegal drugs and said her ability to perform her official duties had remained unimpaired on the Saturday night in question. 

WARSAW, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Poland could hit back at the European Union if Warsaw does not get its share of pandemic recovery funds, ruling party politicians said, after Brussels signalled it was not satisfied with the country's latest judicial reforms.

More than 35 billion euros ($36 billion) of COVID-19 recovery grants and loans were put on hold due to a dispute over the reforms to the judiciary in Poland, which the EU executive says subvert democratic standards.

GORZOW WIELKOPOLSKI, Poland, July 25 (Reuters) - Construction sites, factory assembly lines and warehouses across central Europe are scrambling to fill vacancies after tens of thousands of Ukrainian men left their blue-collar jobs to return home after Russia invaded their country.

Ukrainian workers had flocked to central Europe in the past decade - drawn by higher wages and aided by an easing of visa requirements - filling jobs that weren't highly paid enough for local workers in construction, the automotive sector, and heavy industry.

WARSAW, June 29 (Reuters) - Poland on Wednesday hailed U.S. President Joe Biden's commitment to establish the 5th Army's Headquarters in Poland as the realisation of a long-held dream that would send a clear signal of deterrence to Russia.

Biden told a NATO summit in Madrid earlier on Wednesday that the United States will ramp up its forces and equipment across Europe and set up a new permanent army headquarters in Poland in response to potential new threats from Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.

WARSAW, June 27 (Reuters) - Poland is to send a protest note to Russia after it removed a Polish flag at the Katyn cemetery, which commemorates Polish military officers killed by Soviet forces in 1940, the government said on Monday.

An estimated 22,000 officers and intellectuals were killed in Katyn, near Smolensk in western Russia, many trucked in from prison camps, shot in the head from behind, and shoved into mass graves.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Ukraine’s largest LGBTQ rights event, KyivPride, is going ahead on Saturday. But not on its native streets and not as a celebration.

It will instead join Warsaw’s yearly Equality Parade, the largest gay pride event in central Europe, using it as a platform to keep international attention focused on the Ukrainian struggle for freedom.

“We are marching for political support for Ukraine, and we’re marching for basic human rights for Ukrainian people,” KyivPride director Lenny Emson said. “It is not a celebration. We will wait for victory to celebrate.”

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — One is a restaurateur who fled Belarus when he learned he was about to be arrested for criticizing President Alexander Lukashenko. Another was given the choice of either denouncing fellow opposition activists or being jailed. And one is certain his brother was killed by the country’s security forces.

What united them is their determination to resist Lukashenko by fighting against Russian forces in Ukraine.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Ukraine’s ambassador to neighboring Poland says his nation is grateful for the welcome that Poles have given to millions of Ukrainian refugees, but he hopes the European Union will soon release billions of euros to Poland so that the assistance does not come “at the cost of the Polish people.”

Ambassador Andrii Deshchytsia said that while there have been no real social tensions in the three months since Ukrainians began crossing into Poland seeking safety, he worries they could appear in the future given the large extent of Polish help.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A man in a Russian military uniform stood at the entrance of a large home improvement store in Poland’s capital, saluting shoppers and thanking them for funding Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

His chest bedecked with medals, Polish activist Arkadiusz Szczurek was protesting at a French-owned retailer Leroy Merlin store in Warsaw as shoppers flocked to buy plants and gardening equipment with spring’s arrival. Some shoppers turned around to go elsewhere. Others were indifferent or irritated.