Even about the agreed speaking time, disagreements arose in Strasbourg on Tuesday morning. When Mateusz Morawiecki is speaking in the plenary room of the European Parliament for about half an hour, the President interrupts him. The appointment was five minutes. Nonsense, replies the Polish prime minister: he should be allowed to speak for 35 minutes. “And don’t interrupt me!”
Anyone who had hoped that Morawiecki, after weeks of mounting tension between Brussels and Warsaw, had come to Strasbourg with a conciliatory message, was not having a nice morning. In his speech, the Polish Prime Minister vehemently criticized ‘blackmail’, ‘threats’ and ‘coercion’ by the EU and presented himself as a defender of the right of ‘sovereign’ member states to value their own constitutions highest.
With this, Morawiecki clearly chose to further sharpen the conflict about the rule of law with Brussels.
That conflict escalated just over two weeks ago with a ruling by the Polish Constitutional Court that in some cases Polish law takes precedence over European law. That ruling puts a bomb under the European legal order, which is based on trust in the same interpretation of the law by judges in different Member States.
Also read: Poland’s position in the EU could become untenable
EU too meddlesome
But according to Morawiecki, member states must be able to draw a line when protecting their own competences and there is talk of a “creeping revolution through judgments of the European Court of Justice”. In a letter to his fellow government leaders On Monday, the Polish prime minister also harshly criticized the way in which “European institutions usurp power” and “impose their will on member states” and warned of the risk of the EU becoming a “centrally led organism devoid of democratic control” .
Instead of appeasing his conflict with Brussels, Morawiecki tries to inflate it to something fundamental – in the knowledge that the sentiment of an overly meddlesome EU also pervades other EU countries. In addition, the Polish prime minister made an attempt to shift attention elsewhere, with a whole host of examples of what the EU should really be about. For example, tackling tax avoidance, a direct sneer at the Netherlands.
Confrontation with Rutte
The speech and letter come in the run-up to a meeting of European heads of government on Thursday and Friday in Brussels. Officially, the conflict with Poland is not on the agenda there, but there is a good chance that the subject will be discussed. Prime Minister Mark Rutte has already been instructed by the House of Representatives to work hard to ensure that Poland cannot receive money from the corona recovery fund for the time being.
On the other hand, France and Germany, among others, are not keen on a hard confrontation with Poland during the EU summit. On Friday, Chancellor Angela Merkel emphasized that the problems must be “solved through good talks, in order to reach a compromise”. France also prefers not to push the matter further. Both countries emphasize that the ball is now first and foremost with the European Commission, as the so-called ‘guardian of the treaties’.
But that Commission is looking to Member States for directions on how to proceed. In Strasbourg, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen outlined the options Brussels has on Tuesday morning. “I am very concerned,” said von der Leyen. “This is the first time a court of a Member State has found that the EU treaties are incompatible with the national constitution.” One of the options she mentioned is to cut Poland’s EU funds for violations of the rule of law. Last year, however, member states agreed to wait until the European Court of Justice has ruled on this possibility.
Also read: A legal ping-pong game about ‘the rules on which the EU is based’
In Strasbourg, von der Leyen stressed on Tuesday how important it is to be careful in building a case, should it come to sanctions. “Democracy and the rule of law simply act more slowly than autocracies and dictatorships,” said von der Leyen, “because the procedures must be fair, well-founded and legitimate.” It seems to be a hint that the Commission will not act harshly against Poland anytime soon.
#Polish #defies #MEPs #Strasbourg