The issue concerns the extent to which EU law can exert influence, how it should be implemented, and the scope of the Union’s authority to interfere in domestic affairs, President Andrzej Duda said on Wednesday, commenting on the Constitutional Tribunal’s ruling regarding the lack of unanimity in the EU Council when adopting certain regulations.
Constitutional Tribunal Rules on Incompatibility with the Constitution
On Tuesday, the Constitutional Tribunal ruled that the adoption of regulations by the EU Council without unanimity, which consequently affects Poland’s ability to choose its energy sources, is incompatible with the Polish Constitution. The Tribunal emphasized that the judgment does not impact the functioning of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) in Poland.
When asked on Wednesday in Kuala Lumpur about what actions he would expect the government to take in light of the Tribunal’s ruling, President Duda responded that the issue is much broader and concerns the areas in which EU law may have an effect, how it should be implemented, and “the extent to which the Union is entitled to intervene in national matters.”
“EU institutions are attempting to interfere in areas that are explicitly excluded from any European influence and are meant to be regulated entirely within national legal systems. This includes, for instance, the structure of the judiciary, where interference through so-called rule-of-law proceedings under Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union has been systematically directed at Poland since 2016—or has been in the past. It is clear that this is a purely political action,” the President stated.
President Duda also commented on the implementation of the European Green Deal, noting that, in his view, some of the proposed measures “exceed all boundaries of common sense.” He emphasized that, in the long term, some of these measures could be detrimental to the development of Poland’s economy and “drastically reduce the standard of living in our country.”
“All of this must be approached with a strong dose of common sense, and it is the responsibility of the state authorities to ensure that. In my opinion, the Tribunal clearly pointed this out yesterday, strongly signaling its concerns,” he concluded.