Poland pushes back against rule-of-law grilling at EU summit

Warsaw accuses EU officials of unfairly singling it out

POLISH Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki showed no sign of backing down in the face of a barrage of criticism over judicial independence from his EU counterparts and senior officials heading into a summit on Thursday.

“Neither the Polish government nor the Polish Parliament will act under pressure of blackmail,” Morawiecki vowed.

His country’s Constitutional Tribunal ruled earlier this month that parts of EU law were incompatible with the national constitution, bringing years of simmering tensions linked to rule-of-law issues to a head once again.

The European Commission has already vowed to respond to what it sees as a challenge to the supremacy of EU law, threatening to strike with fresh legal action and potentially to withhold EU funds.

ut Warsaw is doubling down, accusing EU officials of unfairly singling them out and even trying to topple the government.

Morawiecki said that the European Court of Justice and the European Commission had taken on powers not conferred to them in the European Union’s treaties. “That was not the arrangement,” he said.

It is unclear how the dispute can be de-escalated.

At her possibly final EU summit after more than 100, German Chancellor Angela Merkel adopted her classic role as mediator and appealed for compromise. “The rule of law is a central pillar of the European Union,” the conservative political heavyweight stressed. “On the other hand, we must find ways and possibilities to come together again.”

“A cascade of legal disputes at the European Court of Justice still isn’t a solution,” she told reporters. Spanish Prime Minister Pablo Sanchez also called for a “constructive path of dialogue” but similarly warned Warsaw to accept that the commission was the legitimate guardian of EU treaties. The Netherlands, elgium and Luxembourg took a hard line. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the main issue was the independence of the judiciary, rather than the recent Constitutional Tribunal ruling itself.

The government in Warsaw has in recent years restructured the judiciary in a manner the EU executive branch and many EU lawmakers fear undermines judges’ independence.

Neither the Polish government nor the Polish Parliament will act under pressure of blackmail. Mateusz Morawiecki, Prime Minister of Poland