Zbigniew Ziobro made the statement after the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) earlier in the day dismissed a challenge by Poland and Hungary against the bloc’s new rule-of-law conditionality mechanism, the state PAP news agency reported.
Under the measure, member countries would see their EU funding cut if they did not comply with the rule of law and did not respect democratic rights and freedoms.
The court ruled that the mechanism "was adopted on an appropriate legal basis" and "is compatible with the procedure laid down in Article 7 TEU and respects in particular the limits of the powers conferred on the European Union and the principle of legal certainty.”
'We won’t allow Poland to be stripped of freedom'
Commenting on the verdict, the Polish justice minister told reporters that “it’s a historical moment as the EU changes from a space of freedom into a space where illegal violence may be perpetrated, in order to strip the member countries of freedom and restrict their sovereignty.”
He warned: “It’s about brutal power and the transfer of power to those who wish to exercise it at the expense of nation states, under the pretext of the rule of law.”
Ziobro added that “it’s not the end of the battle for Polish freedom in the EU.”
“I trust that there will come a favourable time for the freedom of EU countries, for the sovereignty of the countries making up the EU,” Ziobro told a news conference.
He vowed: “We won’t allow Poland to be stripped of freedom, democracy and sovereignty by means of economic blackmail.”
'Dangerous tendency to go beyond EU treaties': gov't spokesman
Meanwhile, Piotr Müller, the spokesman for the Polish government, told a news briefing that the court's "verdict confirms a dangerous tendency among EU institutions to go beyond EU treaties,” the PAP news agency reported.
He added: “We view such actions, which go beyond the EU treaties, negatively.”
Müller argued that, according to the EU’s top court, the conditionality mechanism “can only be applied in specific situations and only when potential violations in a member state have a direct impact on the performance of the EU budget.”
He told reporters that "in the Polish government’s view, there is no legal basis for EU funds to be blocked for Poland.”
'Attack on our sovereignty'
Earlier, Polish Deputy Justice Minister Sebastian Kaleta commented on Twitter: “Today we need unity in the face of an attack on our sovereignty; Poland must defend its democracy against blackmail designed to deprive us of our right to self-determination.”
He warned that “as of today, each of Poland’s own decisions will be fraught with risk of financial blackmail … which has now been legalised in the EU.”
Poland has already had EUR 36 billion (USD 41 billion) in EU pandemic-recovery funds frozen amid concerns over democratic rights and values, the Reuters news agency reported.
The country is eligible for more than EUR 75 billion from the EU through 2027, including for climate, digitalisation and the health sector, according to Reuters.
There is no appeal against the ruling by the Luxembourg-based court, the news agency reported.
Cash for democracy
The new policing mechanism, which ties access to EU funds to compliance with rule-of-law principles, was agreed by negotiators from the European Parliament and the German presidency of the EU in November 2020 and then approved by the ambassadors of the member states, the PAP news agency reported.
The push met with criticism at the time from Poland and Hungary, with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki sending a letter to EU leaders to oppose “arbitrary and politically motivated criteria.”
Following negotiations, EU leaders finally approved the mechanism at a summit in Brussels in December 2020.
It entered into force as of January 1, 2021, but the EU leaders asked the European Commission to develop guidelines for its implementation, saying that only with the guidelines in place, could the mechanism be launched.
Meanwhile, in March 2021, two EU member states, Poland and Hungary, each brought legal action before the top EU court for the annulment of the measure.
Also on Wednesday, Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal was due to consider a request by Ziobro to declare the rule-of-law conditionality mechanism incompatible with the country’s constitution. However, the court postponed the matter indefinitely, the PAP news agency reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, Reuters, curia.europa.eu