Polish lawmakers seek to unlock EU COVID cash with court reform

FILE PHOTO: People walk outside the Supreme Court in Warsaw, Poland October 23, 2019. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/File Photo

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's parliament will try to thrash out a compromise on Wednesday over reforms to the Supreme Court that could unlock 36 billion euros of EU COVID-recovery grants and loans being withheld due to a dispute over judicial independence.

The debate will be a test of whether the coalition can agree on a way forward for reforms that for many have come to define its time in office - and that have caused a dispute which the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) says is now a distraction from the crisis in Ukraine and at the borders.