Editorials

The Irish Times view on Poland v the EU: a battle Brussels must win

The five-year debate on Poland’s rule of law has been brought to a head by a court decision in Warsaw

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen delivers a speech during a debate on the rule of law crisis in Poland at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday. Photograph: Ronald Wittek/ EPA

Tue Oct 19 2021 - 18:45

Neither side pulled its punches. MEPs in Strasbourg yesterday heard Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki accuse the EU of blackmail, while Commission president Ursula von der Leyen spoke of Poland undermining the fundamental values and legal order of the EU, promising to use all means to force it to reverse course.

The five-year debate on Poland’s rule of law has been brought to a head by its constitutional tribunal’s rejection of the core principle of the primacy of EU laws over national legislation. That principle was essential to providing a legal level playing field throughout the union, and safeguarding the common rights of citizens and legal certainty, von der Leyen argued. That principle, Morawiecki countered, undermined the nature of the EU as an association of free sovereign states.

Poland has already faced legal action in the Court of Justice (CJEU), and seen disciplinary action initiated under the union’s unwieldy Article 7 process. It now faces the prospect of seeing billions of euros in aid withheld by member states who argue that proper use of EU funds cannot be guaranteed by a flawed Polish court system.

Although German chancellor Angela Merkel has cautioned member states to hasten gently and to talk, angry MEPs are preparing legal action to force the commission, as legal guardian of the treaties, to withhold funding. Their position is shared by several member states though others, like Ireland, are waiting for the CJEU to rule on Poland's challenge to the budget/rule of law "conditionality" mechanism.

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Ultimately this is a battle that the commission must press on with and win, though some in Brussels worry its legal case on the primacy of EU law may not be as watertight as it suggests. And the dispute could get messier.

Diplomats say Poland is quietly threatening to use its veto to block decisions on the EU’s huge green programme if its back is pushed to the wall. Having seen the back of one obstructive member state, the EU will not relish the emergence of another.

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