Senior officials from two founding members of the EU on Friday expressed fears that a Polish ruling challenging the supremacy of EU laws could trigger the country’s exit from the 27-nation bloc.
French Secretary of State for European Affairs Clement Beaune said that Thursday’s ruling from Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal was an attack against the EU, while Luxembourg Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Jean Asselborn said Poland was “playing with fire.”
They spoke a day after the tribunal ruled that Polish laws take precedence over those of the 27-nation bloc, which Poland joined in 2004.
Photo: Reuters
The ruling further escalated lingering tensions over democratic standards between the country’s right-wing nationalist government and Brussels institutions.
The tribunal majority ruling — in response to a case brought by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki — said Poland’s EU membership did not give the European Court of Justice supreme legal authority and did not mean that Poland had shifted its legal sovereignty to the EU.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she was “deeply concerned” by the ruling and pledged a swift analysis of its meaning before the EU acts.
She also hinted at possible business disruptions with Poland.
“Our utmost priority is to ensure that the rights of Polish citizens are protected and that Polish citizens enjoy the benefits granted by membership of the European Union, just like all citizens of our union,” Von der Leyen said.
“Moreover, EU citizens, as well as companies doing business in Poland, need the legal certainty that EU rules, including rulings of the European Court of Justice, are fully applied in Poland,” she added.
Beaune called the ruling “extremely serious” and “part of a long list of provocations toward the European Union.”
He told French broadcaster BFMTV that Poland has an obligation to respect its commitment to the bloc.
“When you sign a contract with someone and you say: ‘My own rule, which I define when I want and how I want, is worth more than what I signed with you,’ then there is no more contract. No more participation. So it is very serious, because there is a risk of a de facto exit,” he said.
Morawiecki asked for the review after the European Court of Justice ruled in March that Poland’s new regulations for appointing judges to the Polish Supreme Court could violate EU law.
The ruling obliged Poland’s government to discontinue the rules that gave politicians influence over judicial appointments. To date, Poland has not done so.
Beaune said he does not want Poland to leave, echoing a sentiment largely shared in Brussels and in Poland, where Morawiecki has called a potential “Polexit” “fake news.”
About 80 percent of Poles support EU membership.
“You know that in Poland, the people are European, and that they want to stay European,” Asselborn said. “But it must be said quite clearly that this government in Poland is playing with fire. That means that at a certain moment there can be a break, not only legally, but also politically.”
The Polish Senate adopted a resolution on Friday stating that the upper house of parliament would “stand guard to the national interests which reside in Poland’s continued presence in the European Union.”
The resolution says it is the tribunal’s ruling that conflicts with Poland’s constitution and expresses concerns that an opinion handed down from a court “that is controlled by the ruling party is a legislative prelude to leading Poland out of” the EU.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party, has said that Poland wants to be in the EU, but one that respects its own rules and treaties, meaning the independence of the bloc’s member nations.
Law and Justice last month adopted a resolution stating that Poland wants to remain an EU member.
The commission reaffirmed after the ruling that EU law has primacy over national law, including constitutional provisions, and pledged to “make use of its powers to safeguard the uniform application and integrity of union law.”
Last month, the European Commission asked the European Court of Justice to impose daily fines on Poland until it improves the functioning of the Polish Supreme Court and suspends new laws that were deemed to undermine judicial independence.
German Minister of Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas told Germany’s Funke newspaper group that “the European Commission has our full support for its task of enforcing European law everywhere in the EU.”
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