Poland’s president accused the European Union of interfering in the country’s internal affairs and warned that the ruling party shouldn’t stake this year’s election campaign on securing access to EU funds.
(Bloomberg) — Poland’s president accused the European Union of interfering in the country’s internal affairs and warned that the ruling party shouldn’t stake this year’s election campaign on securing access to EU funds.
The barbed comments by President Andrzej Duda mark a return to tougher rhetoric regarding the European Commission after the head of state threw the government’s plan to access more than €35 billion into turmoil. It also contrasted with a moderate tone struck by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, whose government pushed legislation that sought to address the EU’s concerns over Poland’s judicial reforms.
The bloc is using “various legal loopholes and questionable interpretations, just to show that it can influence” the legal order of member states, Duda told the Sieci weekly in an interview published on Monday. “It has no right to interfere in this area.”
The president last week halted legislation that aimed to unlock the funds by rolling back contested changes to Poland’s court system, which the Commission says erode judicial independence. Duda declined to approve the legislation, instead sending it to Poland’s top court – itself a target of the EU’s complaints – for a review.
The political maneuvering means that the EU funds are unlikely to be released before the election in October, which may loosen the ruling Law & Justice party’s grip on power as it grapples with the region’s cost-of-living crisis and mounting graft scandals in its bid for a third term in power.
The governing alliance “should should not make its political strategy dependent on the decision of the European Commission,” Duda said. “The money will be paid out sooner or later.”
–With assistance from Wojciech Moskwa.
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