Polish PM addresses EU leaders over conditionality mechanism
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Thursday said he recently sent a letter to EU leaders regarding the conditionality mechanism linked with the EU budget.
The prime minister declared that Poland cannot accept a version of the conditionality mechanism that leads to the primacy of political and arbitrary criteria over substantive evaluation.
In a post on Facebook, Morawiecki wrote that "discretionary mechanisms based on arbitrary, politically motivated criteria cannot be accepted as they do not take into consideration vital substantive aspects of European law."
The prime minister added that their adoption "could lead to the sanctioning of the application of double standards, the different treatment of individual EU member states."
According to the prime minister the currently proposed solutions are "inconsistent with the July 2020 conclusions of the European Council and raise serious legal doubts in view of the provisions of (EU) Treaties."
"That is why Poland cannot accept such a version of the mechanism that would lead to the primacy of political and arbitrary criteria over substantive evaluation," wrote the prime minister.
Last week, negotiators representing the European Parliament and the current German EU presidency developed a detailed agreement on the rule of law mechanism for the next EU budget, which met with criticism from Warsaw.
Under the proposal, which is still to be approved by the European Parliament and the EU Council, a decision to freeze funds for a member state that breaches the EU's rule of law rules could be passed by a qualified majority. (PAP)
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