PostedJune 6, 2022, 1:57 p.m.
A threat hangs over the President of the European Commission. Deputies accuse him of having validated Poland’s recovery plan, despite a lack of independence of justice.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, drags the Polish file like a ball.
REUTERS
Three figures from the Renew group (liberals) in the European Parliament called on Monday to submit to the vote of MEPs a motion of censure once morest the Von der Leyen commission, criticizing it for its green light to the Polish recovery plan, despite the failures of Warsaw on the rule of law.
To be put to the vote in plenary session, this text once morest the EU executive, prepared by the Dutch Sophie in’t Veld, the former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and the Spaniard Luis Garicano, vice-president of the group Renew (to which the French delegation LREM belongs), will first have to collect the signatures of at least one tenth of the MEPs (i.e. 70 parliamentarians).
Support on the balance
If Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, “continues to refuse to apply seriously the rules of conditionality on the rule of law”, which aim to condition the payment of European funds on strict respect by Member States of fundamental rights , “we are withdrawing our support,” said Guy Verhofstadt.
On Wednesday, the Commission gave the green light to the Polish recovery plan of 35.4 billion euros (36.5 billion francs), blocked for more than a year because of alleged shortcomings in Warsaw in terms of independence of justice. However, the three leaders of Renew consider the announcements from Warsaw insufficient, including the lifting of the suspension of a judge and the vote, in the Polish Parliament, of the abolition of the disciplinary chamber supposed to control the judges, who opened the way to fire Brussels green.
The conditions demanded by the Commission “fall short of what was required by the European Court of Justice (CJEU), and do not respond to the refusal of the Polish authorities to recognize the primacy of EU law”, while Warsaw “shows no intention of fully restoring the independence of the judiciary”, stings Sophie in’t Veld, accusing Ursula von der Leyen of having “created a major political problem”.
“The commission is aware that the solutions announced by the Polish authorities are purely cosmetic.”
During the vote in the committee, two heavyweights of the European executive, the Danish Margrethe Vestager (Renew Europe, centrist) and the Dutchman Frans Timmermans (S&D, social democrats), both executive vice-presidents, had opposed to the validation of the Polish plan. “The commission is aware that the solutions announced by the Polish authorities are purely cosmetic,” Guy Verhofstadt was indignant in a letter to his political group.
Two-thirds
To be adopted in Parliament, a motion of censure must be approved by two-thirds of the votes cast. Contacted, officials and spokespersons of different groups (Greens, S&D, Renew and EPP – pro-European right and first force in Parliament), reserved their position before meetings scheduled for the followingnoon in Strasbourg.
Iratxe Garcia Perez, president of S&D, however, called last week for a denial of any payment before Poland meets “all the conditions” set by the CJEU, while the Greens expressed their “serious concerns”.
(AFP)