The sovereignist ECR group reacted strongly on Wednesday 17 November to the demand of pro-European political forces in the European Parliament not to approve the Polish recovery plan as long as Warsaw does not comply with the EU Court of Justice’s judgments on the independence of the Polish judiciary.
”This demand is outrageous, motivated by sheer vindictiveness, and in complete disregard to law, truth and decency”, wrote the group’s co-chairs, Ryszard Legutko of Poland and Raffaele Fitto of Italy.
According to them, only the Council of the EU is competent to determine the existence of a violation of fundamental European values. “As long as a breach of the Rule of law has not been established (...), any punishment of Poland would bear the sign of a political vendetta”, they stress, convinced that “the presumption of innocence” must prevail at this stage.
The two sovereignist MEPs are also of the opinion that the recent judgment of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal does not affect the areas in which the EU has explicit competences conferred by the treaties (see EUROPE 12817/5). And they consider that the Polish recovery plan cannot be held hostage in the dispute over the respect of the Rule of law between Warsaw and the European level, as only the Court is entitled to decide on this issue.
See the letter from the ECR group: https://bit.ly/3kHPvRZ
On Monday 15 November, the leaders of the pro-European political groups - EPP, S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA, The Left - had again demanded that the European Commission not approve the Polish recovery plan until “all conditions” in the regulation establishing the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the budgetary instrument at the heart of the Next Generation EU Recovery Plan, are met.
“A government that denies the primacy of EU law and violates the principles of the Rule of Law cannot be deemed trustworthy of fulfilling the commitments and obligations under our legal instruments”, the five political groups underlined in a letter to the Commission on Monday 15 November. In particular, the RRF requires that “the bodies tasked with control and supervision have the legal empowerment and administrative capacity to exercise their tasks”, they specified.
At the end of October, the EU Court of Justice imposed a daily penalty payment of €1 million on Poland because it continues to operate a disciplinary chamber of judges contrary to the principle of judicial independence (see EUROPE 12821/1). On Tuesday, it condemned the Polish Minister of Justice’s power to appoint and dismiss judges (see EUROPE 12833/15).
The European Commission, which is still examining a judgment by the Polish Constitutional Tribunal that called into question the primacy of EU law (see EUROPE 12817/5), says it is continuing discussions with Warsaw.
See the letter from the five political groups: https://bit.ly/3qG11RU (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)