Poland's high court rules that EU regulations to not trump Poland's national laws. The EU claims this is unacceptable. Good for Poland.
Poland triggers an existential crisis for Europe
Read the rest of the article at the link.The European Union faces a crisis that may prove its most existential threat yet. It has nothing to do with the opportunistic predations of Russia or the anti-Brussels exertions of Brexiteers. It’s not about the fiscal woes of the euro zone or a surge of migrants or the toll of a pandemic. It has to do, instead, with Poland.Last week, Poland’s constitutional court, which is packed with judges loyal to the country’s illiberal ruling party, determined that the Polish constitution trumped European law in certain cases and superseded the authority of the European Union’s Court of Justice. Its judgment came amid a months-long political and legal tussle on the continent over what experts and many E.U. officials view as the right-wing Polish government’s steady assault on the country’s independent judiciary, a process that has played out in slow motion since the ruling Law and Justice party came to power in 2015.
The Polish court’s decision has mammoth implications. In an interview with Axios, E.U. Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders cast the situation as Europe’s Jan. 6 moment, a brazen assault on the legal and political consensus that unites the continental bloc.
“During many years, we have had in our minds that it was granted that if you are a member of the EU, of course you apply the rule of law; you have full respect for democracy, fundamental rights and so on — maybe with some concerns but with a real intention to adapt your legislation to be in full compliance [with EU law],” Reynders said.
Poland now appears bent on going the other direction. At a testy plenary session Tuesday of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki squared off against European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The latter declared in a speech that the Polish constitutional court’s “ruling calls into question the foundations of the European Union. It is a direct challenge to the unity of the European legal order.” She laid out possible avenues to sanction Poland, including the suspension of some of Poland’s rights and the use of various E.U. legal instruments to withhold dedicated funds to Warsaw.
Morawiecki fired back at von der Leyen, casting his country as a victim of an “attack” from Brussels. “If you want to make Europe into a nationless superstate, first gain the consent of all European countries and societies for this,” he said.
But most observers outside of Poland view it the other way — that Warsaw’s gambit is a grievous blow to the European project.
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Originally Posted by Peter1469
