The matter was reported on social media by Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, a Member of the European Parliament from the Law and Justice (PiS) party. “The European Commission is constructing a budgetary whip and, at the same time, a sword of Damocles that will hang over Polish democracy,” wrote the MEP.
“Rule of Law” – the Key to EU Money?
According to MEP Saryusz-Wolski, the European Commission (EC) intends to make the disbursement of EU funds to Member States in the new seven-year EU budget – the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) – conditional upon compliance with the so-called rule of law.
He explained this in his post on X.
He further warned that the Commission published its proposal regarding the MFF in July, and is now awaiting approval from both the European Parliament and the Council – for the MFF itself as well as for the provisions concerning the so-called rule of law.
“The Regulation on Conditionality from the current MFF would be carried over into the new framework, remaining in force but in a modified form. Its generalization would mean that it could now be applied to all EU funds, and arbitrarily enforced in relation to alleged breaches of the so-called rule of law as defined at the EC’s discretion,”
explained Saryusz-Wolski.
The MEP envisions that the EU intends to impose “so-called reforms” on Member States – reforms created according to its own discretion and ideological agenda.
“The key element of this plan is a total and revolutionary overhaul of the EU’s fund structure through the introduction of new national and regional partnership plans modeled after the National Recovery Plan (KPO),”
writes Saryusz-Wolski.
First the EU’s Approval, Then the Budget Payout
In practice, this would mean the elimination of 540 existing programs, replaced by 27 so-called National and Regional Partnership Plans. The disbursement of around €800 billion would now depend on the approval of national reforms by the EU, explained the PiS MEP.
“These plans would include the requirement to comply with the so-called rule of law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights. This would become a mandatory element of all such plans. Thus, access to EU funds would depend on adherence to both the Charter and the rule-of-law principles. In the event of violations, the European Commission would have a mechanism allowing it to suspend payments partially or entirely, and ultimately even reallocate funds,”
warns Saryusz-Wolski.
Supervised by a Liberal Who Gets Along with Żurek
The MEP concludes that this is a “devious and fatal plan”, claiming that in the future, “the budgetary tail will wag the large national budgetary dog – and indirectly the policy of the Member State.”
The conditionality and so-called rule-of-law mechanism is to be overseen by McGrath, the successor to Commissioner Reynders – an Irish liberal, now Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, and Rule of Law. Saryusz-Wolski adds that McGrath is already cooperating with Minister Żurek.