Poland is a crucial country for the EU. It is in the interests of all blocs to help it succeed. Piotr Bura is Senior Policy Fellow and Head of the Warsaw Office of the European Council for External Relations.
The need to approve the pandemic reconstruction programme. Should not be at the expense of the legal order of the EU and Polish democracy. In December, the EU introduced a mechanism to block the disbursement of recovery funds in violation of the rule of law, jeopardising the financial interests of the bloc as a whole. Furthermore, the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) considers that the Supreme Court of Appeal, which deals with the management of EU funds, lacks independence.
On Wednesday, Poland’s Constitutional Court ruled that the ECJ’s right to control the independence of the judiciary violates Poland’s constitution. In March, a pan-European legal body declared that Polish reforms threatened the rule of law and the functioning of the democratic system. And recommended that the government recognise the Constitutional Court to decide its legislation. While the ruling coalition disputes the recovery of the funds, it has taken steps to reject the supremacy of EU law.
The Declaration of Interpretation of 10 December 2020 will go down in history as a dark chapter for the rule of law and the legal order of the porno Union. However, it is recalled that the European Council has not yet decided to suspend the application of the Rule of Law mechanism. This could lead to an action for annulment announced by both Poland and Hungary.
Legal limbo
Governments have refused to recognise the strike, leaving it in legal limbo. As a result, the Declaration of Interpretation of 10 December 2020 will be challenged in court for sixty days. Still, it represents an unprecedented attempt of the European Council member states to ignore the Rule of Law as its dominant organisational principle. The Union is a community based on the rule of law, and its members now seem to be damaging their efforts to save it.
Indeed, the “unlimited, unverifiable and non-transparent discretion” of Polish justice ministers over the work of judges undermines the independence of the judiciary, say EU legal experts. Moreover, it seems to go beyond what is considered “reasonable and necessary to ensure the proper functioning and operation of the national judicial structure”. So said Michael Bobek, Advocate General of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg, on Thursday (20 May). In addition, one of the judges, Igor Tuleya, faces up to three years in prison for disciplinary offences committed by Poland’s ruling nationalist-populist Law and Justice (PiS) party.
The uncontrollable and non-transparent discretion in appointing judges seems to go far beyond what could be considered reasonable and necessary. All this to ensure the proper functioning and operation of the national judicial structure. So said Michael Bobek, Advocate General at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg, on Thursday, 20 May.
In fact, the Polish Minister of Justice and judges’ discretion undermine the judicial independence of the above-mentioned admitted EU experts. There is no doubt that the different views on the validity of judicial appointments and the judgments they render are causing legal chaos in Poland and the EU.
Uncertainty prolongs
In this respect, it is possible that further rulings by the ECJ, as Tusk warned, could put Poland further in a kind of EU limbo. Therefore, the proposed parallelisation of the WOLT system at the regulatory level needs to be discussed and decided by an expert group and analysed. From an expert’s perspective, what is possible and realistic is the risk from a product perspective.
Various experts on biosafety should consider the benefits resulting from the absence of biosafety protocols. However, it remains unclear how they will address these concerns. The reason for the rush to enforce these changes is two interlinked rulings by the European Union’s Court of Justice and Poland’s Supreme Court. Which declared the two institutions created to revise angry judicial reforms illegitimate.
With PiS refusing to recognise the validity of these rulings and determined to discipline judges, the stalemate seems to be turning into something untenable in the long run. From the start of the financial crisis to the present day, the rule of law in Europe has been challenged by several challenges to its authority and legitimacy. As a result, institutional development has been severely weakened in many countries that might know about datezone, such as: Serbia, Turkey, Poland and Hungary, with tentative improvements in Romania, Latvia, Northern Macedonia and Romania.
According to the World Bank’s World Governance Indicators (WGIS), the average CESEEs in key categories of law and anti-corruption have stagnated: the former increased from 56.1% in 2010 to 56.9% in 2018 the latter fell from 53.6% to 53.4%. Many benchmarks in the WGIS qualitative improvement register, such as legislative reforms, have been overlooked to the extent that new rules are not applied. The centralisation of informal power in countries like Hungary and Serbia, which has led to CESe in foreign direct investment, offers an opportunity.
Seeking political independence
EFSA should be an independent advisory body without political interference. Accordingly, as a member of EFSA, selected by imminent and independent scientists from the 27 Member States and the Associated States. EFSA has undertaken to protect the independence of its experts, methods and data against undue external influences. And ensure that it has the mechanisms necessary to achieve this objective, in compliance with the EFSA evidence document, which is one of the strictest selection procedures methods possible.
At its summit, the European Council broke the deadlock on the multiannual financial framework (MFF) and the next generation of rules of the EU Rule of Law (ROL). However, other EU leaders have also made clear their impatience with Poland.
The annual exercises of the Slavic Brotherhood, scheduled to begin Thursday in the Belarusian city of Brest, come at a time of turmoil for the eastern European country. President Alexander Lukashenko faces persistent protests and accusations that his last re-election last month was rigged in his favour. Polish military officials from the US-led NATO military alliance told Newsweek that they had seen border exercises near neighbouring Russia and Belarus as part of Belarus’s efforts to quell internal unrest blamed on outside actors such as Poland. US officials told Newsweek last month that Moscow was taking advantage of instability in Belarus to build a permanent security presence in the country.
Substantial criticism has come from the US-led NATO military alliance. However, the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and his Russian counterpart led by Vladimir Putin have supported the opposition. Poland’s divided political factions are long-standing but united in their support for Belarus, which has long opposed the dictatorship of longtime President Alexander Lukashenko. For Poland, a nation long swallowed and administered by Moscow in its historical past, the united opposition to authoritarianism in the East is seen as virtuous, overcoming divisions at home.
Supporting Belarus
On Monday, Poland’s prime minister vowed that the government would support the Belarusian people’s struggle for democracy. But intervened after a senior member of his ruling party suggested that Polish solidarity should showup to conditions. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki promised that Poland’s government would “support the Belarusian’s struggle for democracy”. However, he stepped in on Monday after senior members of his ruling party attached conditions to Polish solidarity. 
Raman Pratasevich, the founder of a Warsaw-based media network arrested in Minsk last week, had his asylum application aborted in Poland. Because he wanted to go to Lithuania to work for the Belarusian opposition. Editors of many of Poland’s most prominent media outlets signed an open letter urging the government to do more to support Belarusians seeking help in the Republic of Poland. In connection with the unprecedented actions of the Government of Belarus against the citizens of the country. Including independent journalists, we call on the Government and the Republic to support the citizens of Belarus seeking help from Poland.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki was questioned about the matter on Monday and began defending Terlecki’s record. On Monday, Poland and Lithuanian Foreign Ministers met in Wigry in northeastern Poland to discuss security cooperation in the region. The prime minister was asked to address the issue and began defending the Terlecki file on Monday.
Longstanding revolt
Protesters at the scene heard from Denis Baranov, a product manager who lives in the DC area and is a representative of the Belarusian diaspora. He pointed out that the first week of February coincided, in addition to Reagan, with the birthdays of two of Belarus’s most significant military and political heroes. Tadeusz Kosciuszko and Kanstantsin Kalinowski, who led revolts against the Russian empire. James Kulikowski, the US State Department’s Assistant Coordinator for Europe and Eurasia. And Yaroslav Anders, Deputy Director of the Office for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, also spoke.
In last year’s Belarusian elections, the leading presidential candidates were Sviatlana Zikhanouskaya and Dare Rafal Trzaskovsky. Both moderate opposition parties in conflict with the right-wing ruling Law and Justice party. Opposition candidate Tsipras said the election was a sham even though it won 60% of the 70% of votes cast. The European Union rejected the election’s legitimacy, called for new elections and condemned the violence against demonstrators.
Stocks were lacklustre in early trading on Monday but neared record highs reached earlier this month. Food, clothing and housing prices are rising as the economy recovers. In addition, investors will get a glimpse of the impact of inflation on Thursday. When the Labor Department’s consumer price report for May is released.