Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki insisted that the rule of law mechanism could now not be used in a discretionary way to sanction countries based on political will and that the EC has been mandated to work accordingly. He believes that this ensures full transparency for the process and respect for EU treaties.
According to the Polish prime minister, the conclusions of this summit have the force of European law, which will be hard to change. The conclusions, according to the head of the Polish Government, ensure that rule of law and the EU budget are kept separate in accordance with EU treaties. He was convinced that this settlement provides for far stronger guarantees that the mechanism would not be used in an arbitrary fashion than existed just two weeks ago. Viktor Orbán, Hungarian PM: I love standing shoulder to shoulder with Poles in a struggle. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that during his 30 years in international politics he had never seen anything like this and could not remember negotiations that had been so difficult. He jokingly pitied Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki for having the responsibility of leading the Visegrad Group during the process.
“I love standing shoulder to shoulder with Poles in a struggle,” said Orbán.
“Together we saved EU unity. This was not just a debate about the rule of law but the very future of the EU. The central question was where authority lies in the EU: the EU institutions or the nation states,” he continued. In conclusion, he said that the decisions taken on Thursday could only be changed on the basis of unanimity, “the strongest possible instrument inside the EU.” gov.pl The leader of a PiS coalition partner, Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, called the deal in Brussels a mistake against which his party had repeatedly warned. But Zbigniew Ziobro, current justice minister and the leader of a junior partner in the PiS coalition, believes that the two countries have not managed to secure a satisfactory containment of the rule of law conditionality.
Orbán’s and Morawiecki’s arguments were not accepted by Ziobro, who says that the European Court of Justice has on repeated occasions ruled that conclusions of the European Council do not have the force of law. He believes that the rule of law conditionality mechanism will mean reduced sovereignty for Poland, a breach of EU treaties.
“It will allow the European Commission to interfere in the activities of the president, parliament, government and even local governments in almost every field,” assessed the leader of Solidarity Poland.
Ziobro concluded a social media post on Thursday night by calling the acceptance of the rule of law conditionality mechanism a mistake against which his party had repeatedly warned since July’s European Council and that his party would now have to meet to consider the implications of the decision not to use the veto.
