EU vows to bring Poland to heel in dispute over laws

Commission ‘will use all its powers’ to ensure primacy of bloc’s treaties after ruling that paves way for ‘Polexit’

URSULA VON DER LEYEN promised yesterday that the European Commission would use “all its powers” to keep Poland in check after a Warsaw court challenged the supremacy of EU law in the country.

The commission president said she was “deeply concerned” by the ruling of Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal, which prompted fears the country had taken a legal step towards “Polexit”.

Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish prime minister, demanded “respect” from the EU as he insisted Poland would not be forced out of the bloc. He said: “Poland’s place is and will be in the European family of nations. We have the same laws as other countries. We want those laws to be respected. We are not an uninvited guest in the EU.

“We do not agree to being treated as a second-category country. We want a community of respect. It is also our community, our Union.”

The EU treaties insist on the primacy of EU law over national law and the European Court of Justice’s status as the top court in the bloc. But the Polish tribunal, which is stuffed with political allies of the ruling Law and Justice party, said the constitution carried more weight than the EU treaty. Its ruling will only take effect if the decision is published in the country’s Official Journal.

“EU law has primacy over national law, including constitutional provisions,” Mrs von der Leyen said, “This is what all EU member states have signed up to. We will use all the powers that we have under the treaties to ensure this.”

Clément Beaune, the French European affairs minister, said the ruling was an attack on the EU that could lead to economic sanctions against Warsaw.

Brussels could hit Poland with legal action and withhold EU funds, including delaying the release of €57billion in EU coronavirus recovery funds.

Law and Justice is at loggerheads with Brussels over issues such as the rule of law, migration and gay rights. The party insists the judiciary should be the purview of nation states and not Brussels, and has ignored EU court rulings.

Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg’s foreign minister, said on arrival at a meeting of EU ministers in Luxembourg: “This government in Poland is playing with fire.

“The primacy of European law is essential for the integration of Europe and living together in Europe. If this principle is broken, Europe as we know it, as it has been built with the Rome treaties, will cease to exist.”

Michael Roth, Germany’s European affairs minister, said, “EU law needs to have primacy over national law in Poland and everywhere. Otherwise our community of values, built on common laws, cannot work.”