Poland’s prime minister accuses EU of making demands with ‘gun to head’
Poland’s prime minister has accused the EU of making demands on Warsaw with a “gun to the head”, urging Brussels to withdraw threats of legal and financial sanctions if it wanted to resolve the country’s rule of law crisis.
In a move to ease tensions in the long-running dispute, which has raised fears of a Polish exit from the EU, Mateusz Morawiecki promised to dismantle a disciplinary chamber for judges that the European Union Court of Justice deemed illegal by the end of the year.
But he warned that if the European Commission “starts World War III” by withholding the money promised to Warsaw, “it will defend our rights with whatever weapon is at our disposal.”
The commission has threatened Poland with sanctions after the country’s highest court ruled earlier this month that key elements of EU law were incompatible with its constitution.
The standoff has already delayed the approval of Poland’s €36 billion Covid-19 economic recovery package from Brussels. Some member states and parts of the commission have also called for a new conditionality mechanism that could threaten tens of billions of euros in annual EU funds paid to Warsaw.
(300gospodarka, Financial Times)
