The main political groups in the European Parliament sent a joint letter to the European Commission on Tuesday calling for a freeze on the approval of Poland’s Recovery and Resilience Plan until Warsaw decides to uphold the rule of law and the rule of law over the Polish one.
The Popular (PPE), Socialist (S&D), Liberal (Renew Europe), Green and United Left groups, which together make up more than three-quarters of MEPs, say in their letter that the Polish nationalist government cannot be trusted. will meet the obligations that come with the funds from the European recovery plan following the COVID-19 pandemic, which for Poland consist of 23.9 billion euros in grants and 12.1 billion euros in loans.
“We call on the Commission, as guardian of the Treaties, to refrain from approving the Polish recovery plan until all the conditions in the Regulation on the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism are met,” the political groups said in a letter quoted by Reuters, according to Agerpres.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said last month that Poland must abolish the new Disciplinary Chamber for Supreme Court Judges before Brussels approves its PNRR. The EU Court of Justice (CJEU) ordered Poland to immediately suspend the activities of this chamber in July, a verdict not enforced by Warsaw, so the CJEU issued a new ruling in October imposing a fine of one million euros a day on Poland.
Prior to this ruling, the Polish Constitutional Court ruled that the CJEU’s decision to suspend the disciplinary chamber was unconstitutional, with the Polish court implicitly challenging the primacy of European law over national law and thus amplifying the disputes between Warsaw and Brussels.
The Warsaw government had previously promised to dissolve the disciplinary chamber, but as part of wider reforms. Polish Prime Minister Matusz Morawiecki accuses the European institutions of “blackmail” and considers that some of them “attribute their right to decide on powers that have not been transferred to them”.
For his part, Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro said that “Poland cannot and must not pay any zlotys (Polish currency – no.)” Of the fines decided by the CJEU, because the Polish state must not submit to “illegal ”.
Ahead of the fine related to the disciplinary chamber, the CJEU also set a fine against Poland of 500,000 euros a day for refusing to close the lignite mine in Turow.
Editor : B.P.
