7
Jun
2022
Watch
The rule of law and the potential approval of the Polish national Recovery Plan (RRF) (debate)
Madam President, it is right you came here today because this chamber is the place where the Commission is held to account, here and nowhere else. Colleagues, 14, no less than 14 resolutions on the rule of law in Poland have been adopted by this House. They were all ignored by the European Commission. So what magical effects do we expect from number 15? The Commission ignores Parliament, the rulings of the highest European Courts, the letters of dissent to five commissioners ignored. Its own Article 7 procedure against Poland ignored, the calls from Polish civil society, warnings by judicial authorities in other Member States, ignored. Instead, President von der Leyen, you travelled to Warsaw last week for a shiny ceremony with the Prime Minister, who, as soon has you had left, hastened to say the judiciary component is fine. As we heard here today by Mr Legutko and his colleagues. So the Guardian of the Treaties is no longer upholding the rule of law. It’s holding up a facade. The milestones are a smokescreen and fall short of the standards called for by the European Court of Justice. Three things. Implementation. Full implementation and irreversible implementation of all ECJ rulings. Reinstatement of the unlawfully dismissed judges. Recognition of the primacy of EU law. Those are the real criteria and nothing less. Colleagues, it is our duty as the European Parliament to hold the Commission to account. A critical Parliament is not the problem. A silent Parliament is Politics, colleagues, is not for the faint hearted. Are we a watchdog or are we a lapdog ? In 2019, this House, Madam President, gave you its vote of confidence, and so did I. But a vote of confidence is meaningless if it’s irreversible, because it leaves us without leverage. For me, it is clear if you make any payment to Poland without all the criteria having been fully met, you lose my confidence. It's democracy. (The speaker refused a request for a blue-card speech by Beata Kempa)