(Bloomberg) -- Poland’s new Prime Minister Donald Tusk asked the European Union for a payout from almost €60 billion ($65.9 billion) in blocked funds, taking the first formal step to unlock the aid suspended over rule-of-law concerns.

The decision follows the victory of Tusk’s pro-EU alliance in October election on a promise to restore relations with European allies and to end democratic backsliding after eight years of populist rule. 

Poland is initially asking for €6.9 billion of the aid set aside for EU economies to deal with the fallout from the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, according to Katarzyna Pelczynska-Nalecz, the minister in charge of EU funds.

The European Commission will now need at least two months to assess the request. This should give Poland’s government some time to devise ways to restore the rule of law after it formally took office this week.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed Tusk’s commitment to restoring democratic standards in Poland — the bloc’s sixth largest economy and its main gateway for military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. 

“I look forward to working closely together on addressing the milestones on judiciary independence so that we can proceed with the first payments,” von der Leyen said at a joint briefing with Tusk in Brussels on Friday. “We’ll need to work hard. I hope together we can resolve the issues.”

Legal Reforms

Meeting the conditions won’t be easy. Attempts to reverse the court changes are likely to face a veto from President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the former administration who played a vital role in implementing the contested system. 

“We have a package of legal reforms, however they’ll require president’s approval,” Tusk told reporters Wednesday after arriving in Brussels for a summit meeting of leaders. “I’d say with 90% confidence that it’ll be possible to speed up this procedure.”

Separately, the EU’s executive arm has already approved released €5.1 billion in funds, which were not bound by the conditions.

--With assistance from Jorge Valero, Stephanie Bodoni and Agnieszka Barteczko.

(Updates with comments and details from the second paragraph.)

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