German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told the European parliament last week that there is a need to reform the voting system in the European Council so that more decisions would be taken by qualified majority voting, thus removing the veto for member states.
In an interview on public Polish Radio 24, Law and Justice (PiS) MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski told listeners that plans for a European superstate ruled by an oligarchy of Germany, France, and their allies in EU institutions are a threat to Polish sovereignty. Saryusz-Wolski argued that the EU today is breaching its powers with its institutions usurping competencies of the member states, and claimed that Poland has suffered from this during the rule of law dispute.
This approach is being amplified via financial blackmail over EU funds, the senior MEP observed. “There is a plan to turn the EU into an oligarchic superstate controlled by France and Germany at the expense of small and medium-sized member states. The German takeover of the EU is taking place and is a threat to Polish sovereignty,” Saryusz-Wolski warned.
The Polish MEP, who back in the 1990s was a minister responsible for preparing Poland for accession to the EU, also said that in his view the French-German axis was seeking to control key policy areas such as foreign policy, defense, energy, environment, education, and health. “The removal of the power of veto would increase the power of Brussels and mean the loss of sovereignty of the member states,” he concluded.
Saryusz-Wolski said that Poland should categorically reject the revolutionary changes being proposed by Germany and that the principle of subsidiarity and the existing powers of the member states should be defended at every turn. “The EU must be a union of nation-states and not an oligarchy,” he said.
Jacek Saryusz-Wolski also touched on the matter of the corruption scandal that has engulfed the European Parliament. He said that the EU does not have the right to call itself a moral superpower “until it cleans out its own ranks and acts within the framework set by EU treaties. The witch hunt over the rule of law is just humbug because it is clearly ultra vires,” he added.
