Polish PM forecasts big changes for Brussels after EU elections

The EU as an institution needs reform . . . and when I speak to prime ministers from other countries, most of them agree that a serious revamp of procedures and institutions is needed, but everyone is waiting for the European elections

— says Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in an interview with the Financial Times.

Poland’s prime minister has forecast this year’s European elections will lead to big changes for Brussels and compared the controversy over the rule of law in his country to the travails of French president Emmanuel Macron.

Mateusz Morawiecki called on the EU to drop disciplinary proceedings over Warsaw’s contentious judicial reform and predicted that May’s elections, in which nationalist and Eurosceptic groups were expected to make gains, would have a “strong” impact on the bloc.

Brussels and the European Commission need to be very receptive to what is going on in different countries . . . The voice of different countries, and in particular central European countries, will need to be heard much more clearly

— he said.

Mr Morawiecki dismissed as “completely wrong” suggestions that central Europe was sliding towards authoritarianism, a characterisation based on the clampdown on civil society in Hungary, and contested judicial changes in Romania, as well as his own government’s battles with the EU over the rule of law.

People from Brussels completely do not understand the situation in post-communist countries

— he said, arguing that the PiS’s judicial overhaul — which critics say is an assault on judicial independence — was needed to root out the last vestiges of Poland’s communist past.

He compared the controversy surrounding the Polish changes with Mr Macron’s recent struggles with the gilets jaunes protests, which have involved violent clashesbetween police and demonstrators.

When I look at what is happening in France, I wouldn’t say that France has an issue with the rule of law, but can you imagine if those brutal interventions would happen against demonstrators in Poland how loud the voices would be in Brussels, in Berlin or . . . maybe even Paris?

— Mr Morawiecki said.

He added:

Just as every country has their challenges, so we have our challenges with the judiciary that hasn’t been reformed for the last 30 years.

However, Mr Morawiecki argued that Poland had now taken due account of Brussels’ concerns about its reforms, and that the EU should drop its disciplinary procedures:

Now is the turn of the European Commission. If they want to be an honest broker, because I don’t feel so far that they are an honest broker . . . they should really take decisive positive steps to clarify all these issues they have, because now we have done so much.

Mr Morawiecki added that if the commission did not withdraw the ECJ case it would show that EU officials were exploiting the stand-off with Warsaw for political ends.

If they are keeping this open, I believe it is because some people want to politicise this, want to use it as an argument in a political campaign before the European Parliament elections, and this is very dangerous

— he said.