WARSAW: Poland’s prime minister appeared to escalate a conflict with the European Commission on Friday, declaring Poland is a sovereign state and will not bow to external pressure. The European Union’s executive arm is investigating whether Poland is violating the rule of law, and it said on Wednesday it would send its criticisms to Warsaw by Monday unless it saw significant progress on problems it had already identified.
That drew a heated response from Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, who said in a speech to parliament that Poland will “never yield to any ultimatum.” “The Polish government will never allow for anyone to impose their will on Poles,” Szydlo said. “I am the prime minister of the Polish government, and my compatriots’ opinion is and always will be supreme. I am a European, but above all I am a Pole.”
The row stems from changes that Poland’s newly elected government imposed on the country’s constitutional court late last year, which increased the size of majorities required for rulings and changed the order in which cases are heard. The EU said those changes undermined the court’s independence, and it responded in January with an unprecedented inquiry into whether the government, formed by the eurosceptic Law and Justice party (PiS), has breached democratic standards. It was the first use ever of the commission’s Rule of Law framework.
