EU at risk of further division as Polish reforms come under investigation

Poland's new government has passed a number of reforms, giving it more power over the media and constitutional court, which has the European Union (EU) concerned over creeping autocracy; complaints have so far fallen on deaf ears in Warsaw, leading the EU to take firmer action. The EU are to discuss the new laws from Poland's right-wing government, and there is now a real threat that Poland could face sanctions following the EU's investigation. This would risk creating further division in Europe, at an already turbulent time within the EU caused by immigration and the looming possibility of Brexit.

Poland’s nationalist government is on a collision course with the EU executive over its commitment to democracy and the rule of law less than two months after taking office.



On Wednesday, the European commission will raise the pressure on Warsaw by debating how to respond to controversial new laws that have given the Polish government more control over the media, purged public broadcasting staff, and packed the supreme court with loyalists.

The commission could call for greater scrutiny of Polish laws on the media and constitutional tribunal and initiate previously unused procedures that could eventually see the country stripped of voting rights in the EU. Such draconian action is highly unlikely in the near future, though Warsaw shows no signs of backing down over the dispute.

Following complaints from Brussels about the government’s swift moves to replace judges, the justice minister, Zbigniew Ziobro, voiced “astonishment” at the criticisms.

“I ask you to exercise more restraint in instructing and cautioning the parliament and government of a sovereign and democratic state in the future, despite ideological differences that may exist between us, with you being of a leftwing persuasion,” he wrote on Tuesday to Frans Timmermans, vice-president of the EU commission.

Ziobro has previously reacted to criticism from German politicians by invoking the second world war and Nazi Germany’s occupation of Poland.

Poland’s justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro has attacked the EU commission before a meeting on Wednesday. Photograph: Paweł Supernak/EPA

Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, last week signed into law a bill that allows the government to appoint and dismiss executives in charge of TV and radio broadcasters, a move that has been condemned by human rights and media watchdogs as undermining media freedom.

The move follows the changes to Poland’s constitutional court which critics say remove vital checks and balances on executive power.

The debate among the 28 members of the European commission will focus on “the situation in Poland and the EU rule of law framework”. It is the first discussion of its kind since the EU overhauled its processes on how EU member states uphold democracy and the rule of law in 2014.

The commission is likely to call for further investigation of Polish laws, in a decision that could come as soon as Wednesday, or when the European parliament is due to debate the new Polish laws on 19 January.

One EU source, who thought it was highly unlikely the EU executive would conclude no further action was needed, said: “I don’t think there would be a debate if we were happy with the situation as it is.”

At this stage, any concerns would trigger a deeper examination of whether Poland’s new laws pose “a systemic threat to the rule of law”. Although this bureaucratic process could in theory lead to Poland being stripped of voting rights in the EU, this outcome is highly unlikely. Such a decision would require unanimity among the EU’s 28 member states – and Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has already promised to veto this step. Last week the president of the commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, warned against “overdramatising” the situation.

Officials in Brussels are also worried about alienating one of Europe’s largest countries. “If you lose Poland now you risk creating divisions in Europe and we cannot afford that,” the source said.

But relations between Warsaw and other EU capitals have soured quickly following Law and Justice’s election triumph in October.

Jarosław Kaczyński (centre) is the de facto leader of the Law and Justice party. Photograph: Sławomir Kamiński/Agencja Gazeta/Reuters

EU and German politicians have accused the party’s de-facto leader, Jarosław Kaczyński of aping Russia’s authoritarian president, Vladimir Putin, triggering kneejerk retorts from Law and Justice about the Third Reich and Germany’s occupation of Europe.

“Things are obviously not going in a good direction,” said a leading figure in German chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party. “We need to strike an intelligent balance. This is why we need other countries in the EU to talk about Poland. It’s different if the Germans criticise.”

The EU has long struggled to deal with lapses in democratic standards and the rule of law among its members.

In 2000, the EU had a crisis when Jörg Haider, the late leader of Austria’s far-right Freedom party, joined his country’s coalition government. Austria was punished with months of sanctions, though these were eventually reversed.

The mechanism to bar a country from voting has never been used, despite calls for sanctions against Hungary’s government when Orbán enacted a media law that critics say undermined press freedom.

EU authorities threatened France with court action in 2010 after the then president Nicolas Sarkozy’s centre-right government ordered the deportation of 1,000 Roma to Romania and Bulgaria in violation of EU freedom of movement laws.

Marco Incerti, from the Centre for European Policy Studies, said it was always “difficult to tell any member state that the way they are running their country is not sound and not in line with the the fundamental values of the EU”.