‘Language of blackmail’: what Poland’s clash with the EU means for the bloc

Poland’s leader has warned that he will not give in to “financial blackmail” in the country’s ongoing dispute with the EU over sovereignty and the rule of law.

In a letter to EU leaders, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki warned that the bloc risks becoming a “centrally managed organism, run by institutions deprived of democratic control” after a tribunal last week ruled that Poland’s constitution carries more weight than EU treaties.

Describing Poland as “a loyal member” of the bloc, Morawiecki called for the EU to be “open to dialogue” on the “Polish arguments” around the primacy of national laws, a move described by the BBC as a “major challenge to the EU’s legal framework”.

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‘Undemocratic and centralist’

The highest court in Poland last week set the country on a collision course with the EU when it challenged the longstanding position within Brussels that the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg is the final arbiter of EU law.

Instead, the government in Warsaw stated that the justice system and the judiciary are the business of EU member states and not the EU. The decision sparked fury among EU leaders and officials, prompting threats of legal and financial recriminations against Poland.

Morawiecki said in his letter to fellow leaders that “the language of financial blackmail”, “punishment” and “‘starving’ of unsubordinated states” was “undemocratic and centralist” and does not “have a place in European politics”.

“Such language strikes not only at individual states, but the entire community,” he continued, adding that the EU “is not and should not be a collection of better and worse countries” and “does not and should not serve to pursue the interests of some member states at the expense of others”.

“If we want to avoid further crises, we must change our ways,” he concluded.

‘Architecture of Europe’

The intervention comes amid “one of the tensest weeks in the fraught relationship between Warsaw and Brussels”, Politico said.

The tribunal has threatened to “undermine” the EU’s legal framework and brought “long-running anxieties over the rule of law” in Poland “to a head”.

All of that is “prompting the European Commission to go slow” on Warsaw’s request for €24bn in grants and €12bn in loans under the EU’s pandemic recovery programme, the news site added, prompting Morawiecki’s allegation of “financial blackmail”.

The EU and Poland have spent “much of the past five years at odds” over legislation passed by the country’s ruling Law and Justice Party that granted “politicians sweeping powers over the judiciary, and which the commission regards as posing a fundamental threat to judicial independence”, said the Financial Times.

The European Commission now “has a number of tools at its disposal as it seeks to hold the line on rule-of-law matters”, the paper added, including withholding the pandemic recovery funds or “bringing a new infringement action over the Polish tribunal ruling”.

Departing German Chancellor Angela Merkel publicly called on the EU to “talk in-depth with the Polish government” about “how we can overcome the difficulties”, adding: “We have big problems, but my advice is to solve them in talks, to find compromises.”

But other EU leaders have been more bullish. Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel told reporters that the Polish government has a “problem with the whole architecture of Europe” if they believe that EU law was secondary to national law.

“I would like the Commission to examine this issue and, if necessary, to proceed with the instruments at its disposal,” he added.

MEPs from across the European Parliament’s various political blocs have also filed a “motion for a resolution” on “the rule of law crisis in Poland and the primacy of EU law”.

The motion states that the group “deeply deplores” the ruling of the “illegitimate” Polish tribunal, adding that it serves “as an attack on the European community of values and laws as a whole”.

‘Dirty remain’

“Just as there are many ways of leaving the EU, there are many ways of remaining,” said The Economist.

There is the “clean version” pursued by most member states, “in which countries quietly accept the EU’s strictures”. And then there is “the messy version” being pursued by Poland, “where governments foul up the club”.

“Opinion polls consistently show strong backing for EU membership among Polish voters,” reported the BBC, and mass protests have been held by Poles who want to stay in the bloc since the tribunal ruling.

However, Poland’s “right-wing nationalist government has increasingly been at odds [with the European Commission] on issues ranging from LGBT rights to judicial independence”, the broadcaster added.

Ahead of an address by Morawiecki in Brussels today, leader of the Law and Justice Party Jaroslaw Kaczynski stressed that rumours of a “Polexit” are “complete nonsense”, telling the pro-government Sieci magazine that if the EU is willing to reform, “tension will disappear”.

But a “dirty remain” position may be “more pernicious than Polexit”, The Economist said.

“Poland is a problem for the EU precisely because it will not leave”, it added, and unlike the UK it “will remain inside the tent causing trouble”. Such “bad behaviour can spread” to other Eurosceptics within the Berlaymont, and “dirty tricks are difficult to deal with inside the club”.

The UK played its hand by leaving as “dealing with a departure is relatively easy for the EU”. A Polish “dirty remain” may be “much harder”.