Polish FM slams president's referendum request on EU climate policy
EU membership without obligations is not possible, Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has said in response to the second presidential request for a nationwide referendum on the European Green Deal.
Poland's President Karol Nawrocki announced on Thursday that he had submitted a second request for a referendum after the Senate rejected his initial proposal. The question reads "Are you in favour of Poland implementing the European Union's climate policy?"
Sikorski commented on the news to the private broadcaster Tok FM on Monday, observing that the president complains about rising energy prices driven by the costs of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) but would never request a halt to agricultural subsidies from the bloc.
"This is precisely the kind of world a Europhobe imagines, where... there is an EU in which one enjoys nothing but privileges and has no obligations whatsoever," he said. "As the British have discovered, no such Union or world exists."
According to Sikorski, the slowdown in the ETS reforms is possible to achieve through cooperation between member states, rather than "bashing the EU".
Under Polish law, the president may propose a nationwide referendum on matters of particular importance, but such a motion requires Senate approval.
Nawrocki, a vocal critic of the EU's climate policy, first called for a referendum in May, arguing that Poles should decide whether the country should continue implementing the bloc's climate measures. However, as an EU member state, Poland cannot unilaterally opt out of the EU's climate policy without breaching its obligations under EU law. (PAP)
aj/mf/ kgr/
