BRUSSELS - Poland must undo its new disciplinary system for judges to unlock access to billions of euros of European Union aid designed to help revive economic growth mauled by the coronavirus pandemic, the bloc's chief executive said.

"We want to put into that recovery and resilience plan a clear commitment to dismantle the disciplinary chamber, to end or reform the disciplinary regime and to start a process to reinstall the judges," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told a Thursday news conference.

"I think it is doable, I hope that we will reach an agreement. But the reform part is conditio sine qua non."

(Reporting by Marine Strauss, Gabriela Baczynska, Sabine Siebold)