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Pro-European demonstrators in Warsaw: No to the Polexit
Photo: Attila Husejnow / SOPA / ZUMAPRESS.com / picture alliance
It's about money: Poland is to receive 57 billion euros from the European Corona reconstruction fund.
In order for the money to flow, Warsaw - like all other countries - had to submit an expenditure plan to Brussels for approval.
The national conservative government submitted the paper on May 3 - and has been waiting ever since.
It has been improved here and corrected there, but the EU Commission has not yet relaxed the money.
Economic Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said on Wednesday during a debate in the EU Parliament, rather casually, why it is not yet flowing: Because Warsaw calls into question that EU law takes precedence over national law, the billions would be withheld.
The EU Commission has a duty to monitor how the states intend to use the aid.
But - as Gentiloni said clearly - in the case of Poland there is more to it.
Sanctions at last!
Finally, one could say: Finally Brussels is getting serious and turning the tap on a government that is systematically undermining European principles of democracy and the rule of law.
But the enthusiasm for the new energy could quickly give way to bitter disillusionment.
The government of the PiS party came to power in autumn 2015 - and has since accumulated a long register of sins: First, President Andrzej Duda - he comes from the PiS - is not a judge at the constitutional court who had been elected under the previous government. Instead, he promoted his own people. The human rights organization Helsinki Komitee recently came to the conclusion in a report that the constitutional tribunal has since been not a supervisory body but a tool of the government. With the so-called judicial reform, one can say in summary, this tries to increase the influence of the PiS majority on the judiciary. Most recently, the European Court of Justice had ruled unequivocally: A disciplinary body created by PiS for the judiciary must be abolished with immediate effect,it is far too little independent of politics.
At the request of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, the constitutional tribunal is currently even examining whether Polish law is not actually above EU law.
A verdict is expected on September 22nd.
The PiS government has definitely earned sanctions from Brussels.
How can the EU push billions into the hands of a member who at the same time undermines the central principle of the separation of powers and de facto ignores the judgments of the ECJ?
The EU - so it was agreed - should be a community of values and not just an economic area.
But they are the wrong ones
And yet the EU's approach is a mistake.
Because if there are sanctions, then the EU Commission should impose them openly - and adhere to the planned procedures.
The problem is that the corona aid has nothing to do with the rule of law.
Brussels blocks the money - and on the other hand leaves the regular sanction mechanisms unused.
The EU Commission is delaying reconstruction after the pandemic - but does not dare head-on to sanctions that it could impose.
In doing so, it rightly exposes itself to the accusation of taking political action on the rule of law, of all things, instead of using the resources provided for it.
That looks squishy and odd.
Why didn't the Commission first press for compliance with the ECJ ruling on the disciplinary body?
Warsaw had already declared itself cloudy on August 16.
The Commission could have said that it was not enough and had to apply to the ECJ for fines against Warsaw.
With each day of the violation of the law, penalties in the millions could be due.
But Brussels has been silent for two weeks.
For the future, the EU had already agreed on the so-called rule of law mechanism.
After that, there will soon be no more money for countries in which the rule of law is in danger.
The blockade of the corona funds of all things now seems half-hearted on the one hand.
On the other hand, the question arises: how long can Brussels hold out?
And above all, this stupid measure has a paradoxical internal effect.
It may strengthen those in Poland whom it is supposed to meet.
It gives the PiS the chance to present itself as a victim of an anti-Polish EU conspiracy.
The right took note of Gentiloni's testimony with mock horror.
The move in Brussels confirms an image of Europe that it is already spreading: in the eyes of the Polish right, the EU listens to instructions from Berlin.
The criticism of the judicial reform is not objective, but a political plot by anti-national forces - including the liberal-pro-European opposition around former EU Council President Donald Tusk.
Of all people, she is now on the defensive as a result of the Commission's actions.
