By: V4 Agency
Poland’s veto serves the creation of a free and solidarity-based Europe, according to an article in the Tuesday edition of the Croatian daily Vecernji List, authored by Poland’s prime minister. In his article PM Mateusz Morawiecki explains why Warsaw has decided to veto the EU’s next 7-year budget and post-pandemic recovery package, designed to revitalise the bloc’s economies.
The coronavirus is the biggest crisis since WW2, Morawiecki wrote, adding that this decisive moment, which calls for mutual solidarity in Europe, appears to only have brought the disagreements to the fore.
“The enormous efforts around the recovery fund are annihilated by what has always been the continent’s weakness: its inclination for disputes and a search to find what separates, rather than brings us together”, he stressed.
He underlined that linking the rule of law conditionality to the disbursement and usage of EU funds not only puts the legal basis of the mechanism itself into doubt, but it also undermines the basic principles of trust and loyalty between the member states, and the EU institutions.
The biggest problem and controversy of today’s modern EU is based on the fact that it constantly echoes the importance of Europe’s diversity, yet it cannot accept legal and constitutional differences that are rooted in the traditions of its individual member states, the Polish prime minister wrote.
Morawiecki points out that “the EU cannot question its own rules and cannot change them upon the political request of some member states”. He says the decree that safeguards the common budget’s financial security comes after the EU’s basic treaty that governs its functioning, so they cannot be bypassed, replaced or changed.
It is not too difficult to imagine a situation where a particular political force in the EU dislikes an economic or constitutional reform implemented by certain member states. When this happens all they must do is drive their message home – via the media or the European Parliament – that the reform in question is a violation of the rule of law, and they can immediately withhold some financial assets, PM Morawiecki wrote.
He believes that such a solution provides an opportunity to keep member states under pressure in terms of their domestic political processes.
Today this arbitrary and politically-motivated mechanism is directed against Poland, Morawiecki writes, adding that “we cannot be certain that it won’t be directed against other member states that will not want to subject themselves to the political will of Brussels institutions”.
The veto is nothing but a rejection of this predicament, the Polish premier wrote, adding that its aim is not to weaken the EU. To the contrary: it is a safety valve that ensures the mere existence of the bloc.
“It protects compromise and prevents pressure from those who are currently stronger”, he stressed, adding that it is living proof of the fact that votes cast by member states are equal.