European Central: Some EU law Unconstitutional According to Polish Constitutional Court
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As the European Union passes legislation, member states must ensure that their national laws are in line with those of the bloc. Poland however is flipping the script and claiming that the EU treaties are incompatible with Polish laws and the national constitution. Poland's Constitutional Court ruled that Poland has authority over issues that the European Union and Poland disagree. In particular there is anger that the EU is challenging how judges are appointed and the constitution of Poland’s judicial system.
The European Union disagrees with the ruling and reasserted that the European Court of Justice has the final say in matters. Jeroen Lenaers, a Member of the European Parliament, believes that this court ruling proves that Poland intends to leave the European Union. This however may not be the case due to the economic incentive to stay within the European Union. Since Poland's GDP per capita is below the average GDP per Capita of the EU, it receives financial assistance to aid with economic development.
While the European Union cannot hurt Poland by removing it from the bloc, the EU can coerce Poland into compliance by withholding approval for the recovery and resilience plan. In order to help member states recover economically from the Covid-19 pandemic, the EU has been giving out grants and loans to countries within the bloc. However, the recovery plans are only approved after member states if the countries describe in depth how they will spend the money and if they meet conditions set by the European Union. Member states are required to focus the spending of the funds around six pillars: green transition; digital transformation; economic cohesion, productivity and competitiveness; social and territorial cohesion; health, economic, social and institutional resilience; policies for the next generation. The European Union will continue to monitor the progress of each nation and scoring their performance.
Currently a resilience and recovery plan has been approved for most member states but not yet noticeably for Poland and Hungary. These two countries have still not had their plans approved due to continued discussions with the EU about needing to respect the rule of law. These plans would provide large grants along with loans to both countries and are a strong monetary incentive to comply with the wishes of the EU. Poland would receive 29.2 million euros in grants and Hungary would receive 7.2 million euros in grant money. At the same time, both countries appear uninterested in spending the money on the areas required by the European Union. At least 37 percent of the money needs to be spent in a manner that supports climate objectives. Poland in particular has been resistant towards transitioning towards green energy and is very supportive of its coal industry which provides 80 percent of the country’s energy.
Another way to look at this however is Poland may give in as most of the money the country will receive will be grants rather than loans. This will be free money to spend on areas such as the environment the country is not as interested in which may make this expenditure easier to digest. It would also help Poland find other energy sources rather than continue to pay 500,000 euros in fines daily for the continued operation of the Turow coal mine. This is an order from the European Court of Justice. Poland would also be required just like all the other member states to spend 20 percent on the digital transformation. As Poland is clearly proud of being considered a developed economy, it is doubtful that Poland would object to this as this expenditure is in line with the desire to continue to grow Poland’s economy. McKinsey estimates that Digitalization can help Poland increase its economy by 13-22% along with closing the productivity gap between Poland and western European Union member states. Investments in digital technology can also help increase labor participation through remote work which the world learned how beneficial this could be since March of 2020.
Part of the resistance from Poland and other Eastern European member states towards the European Union may be due to politicians and citizens feeling they went from being under the role of the Soviet Union to know the European Union. The problem with this sentiment is the EU is drastically different and does significantly more to provide all member states with a voice compared to the Soviet Union when it was in existence. Many issues require a unanimous vote and others require a qualified majority that requires not only 15 member states voting in support, but these countries must also represent at least 65 percent of the EU population. Arguments of a perceived democratic deficit in the European Union often fail to acknowledge that in many member states politicians are not chosen through direct elections either.
Polish politicians may also give in to the European Union as elections have become more competitive. It can be seen that the European Union has support throughout Poland by the large pro-EU protests that have occurred after the Polish Constitutional Court ruling. The protests are estimated to have included more than 100,000 demonstrators in over 100 towns. As the economic impact is still obvious from Brexit, more Polish voters may become hesitant about continuing to vote for PiS and working against the European Union. Pro-EU protestors mentioned the possibility of Poland following Britain out of the EU if they are not careful.
The current position of Poland’s government does not endanger the country’s EU membership but instead risks a prolonged negative perception of the country by other member states and the various branches of the European Union. Poland is the bloc’s fifth-largest population and can use this to its advantage by promoting its own ideas within the bloc. However, challenging the primacy of EU law will do it no favors and may doom it to picturing itself as a victim similar to Great Britain before it voted to leave.
