{"id":17086,"date":"2022-08-10T14:29:57","date_gmt":"2022-08-10T10:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/?p=17086"},"modified":"2022-08-18T11:04:24","modified_gmt":"2022-08-18T07:04:24","slug":"poland-threatens-to-turn-all-our-cannon-on-eu-in-rule-of-law-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/poland-threatens-to-turn-all-our-cannon-on-eu-in-rule-of-law-row\/","title":{"rendered":"Poland threatens to turn \u2018all our cannon\u2019 on EU in rule-of-law row"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ruling party steps up rhetoric by suggesting it could unseat European Commission\u2019s Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poland\u2019s national-conservative government has significantly toughened its rhetoric in its rule-of-law standoff with Brussels, threatening to turn \u201call our cannon\u201d on the European Commission and if necessary build a coalition to unseat its president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the EU executive \u201ctries to push us against the wall we will have no choice but to pull out all the weapons in our arsenal\u201d and respond \u201can eye for an eye\u201d, said Krzysztof Sobolewski, the general secretary of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sobolewski told Polish state radio that if the commission did not release \u20ac35bn (\u00a329.5bn) in pandemic relief funds Warsaw would take legal action against Brussels, veto EU initiatives and assemble an alliance to dismiss Ursula von der Leyen and her college of commissioners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The threat came after Jaros\u0142aw Kaczy\u0144ski, who resigned as deputy prime minister in June but remains the chair of PiS and Poland\u2019s de facto leader, said in an strongly worded interview in Sieci magazine that Warsaw had \u201cno reason to fulfil its obligations\u201d to the bloc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have shown maximum goodwill, but [our] concessions have yielded nothing,\u201d Kaczy\u0144ski said, insisting Poland had respected its side of an agreement to roll back some of its controversial judicial reforms in exchange for EU funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn our part it was kept, on their part it was broken,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s time to draw conclusions. We had to try, if only to make the issue clear. And today it is clear \u2013 everyone can see what the game is about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warsaw has been embroiled for months in an increasingly ill-tempered dispute with the commission over the release of the recovery funds, with Brussels demanding Poland meet a series of rule-of-law \u201cmilestones\u201d before the grants and loans can be unlocked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Polish government, whose judicial changes are widely viewed as having amputated the independence of the country\u2019s court system in contravention of EU standards, last month closed down a controversial disciplinary chamber for judges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amid warnings that the chamber would simply be replaced by a new, similarly politically controlled body, however, Von der Leyen announced that Poland had not yet made enough progress to justify releasing a first tranche of funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaczy\u0144ski said the government would take no further steps towards meeting the commission\u2019s requirements, accusing Brussels of wanting to \u201cdismantle the rule of law in Poland\u201d and force it \u201cinto full submission to Germany\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poland \u201cdoes not fit into German-Russian plans to rule Europe,\u201d Kaczy\u0144ski said, claiming the Polish opposition was colluding with Brussels and other foreign powers \u201cto try to take our freedom, our sovereignty and rob us\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polls show a large majority of Polish voters back remaining in the 27-member bloc. But opposition leaders warned PiS\u2019s increasingly aggressive stance would eventually lead to the country being ejected from the EU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNobody will take seriously a man who, instead of large funds, prefers to give Poles poverty, lawlessness, the destruction of judicial independence and \u2026 #Polexit,\u201d tweeted Grzegorz Schetyna of the opposition Civic Platform. \u201cSymbol of madness and decline.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026 we have a small favour to ask. Millions are turning to the Guardian for open, independent, quality news every day, and readers in 180 countries around the world now support us financially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We believe everyone deserves access to information that\u2019s grounded in science and truth, and analysis rooted in authority and integrity. That\u2019s why we made a different choice: to keep our reporting open for all readers, regardless of where they live or what they can afford to pay. This means more people can be better informed, united, and inspired to take meaningful action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In these perilous times, a truth-seeking global news organisation like the Guardian is essential. We have no shareholders or billionaire owner, meaning our journalism is free from commercial and political influence \u2013 this makes us different. When it\u2019s never been more important, our independence allows us to fearlessly investigate, challenge and expose those in power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ruling party steps up rhetoric by suggesting it could unseat European Commission\u2019s Ursula von der Leyen Poland\u2019s national-conservative government has significantly toughened its rhetoric in its rule-of-law standoff with Brussels, threatening to turn \u201call our cannon\u201d on the European Commission and if necessary build a coalition to unseat its president. If the EU executive \u201ctries […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17086"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17086"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17088,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17086\/revisions\/17088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}