Former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki expressed the view that the current situation, in which the European Union simultaneously prioritizes climate protection, defence, and the maintenance of the welfare state, is untenable. “We have to choose two out of the three,” he added. He argued that the EU should reduce spending on the Green Deal because it cannot afford it.
In a conversation held as part of the European Economic Congress, the former prime minister and vice-president of Law and Justice (PiS) assessed that the Union needs to revise its priorities.
“It is impossible to maintain the simultaneous prioritization of climate policy, defence policy, and an innovative welfare state. We must choose two out of these three. I made my decision a long time ago, and in many transcripts from European Council meetings—two years ago, four years ago—one could read my philippics about the need to cut expenditures on the Green Deal policy because the European Union simply cannot afford it,”
Morawiecki said.
“What’s the use of it that we will be a little greener if we’re dead? What’s the use of it that we will be a little greener if we are unemployed because the Chinese and Americans will have taken our jobs? It’s no joke in here. We are now in a phase of direct global competition with powerful economic blocs, and Europe needs an anaphylactic shock,”
he argued.
The politician also asserted that the European Union is “a highly overregulated structure,” and that previous deregulation efforts, such as the Clean Industrial Deal, are “very meagre” and “have already been criticized by industry associations.”
In his view, a key reason why deregulation in Poland has also become “a never-ending story” is the fact that 70 percent of domestic regulations result from the implementation of European law.
“It is over there (in Brussels – editor’s note) that a whole group of officials sits—sometimes more knowledgeable about a particular business, and sometimes… not so much,”
he noted.