EU braced for embarrassing defeat as Poland stands firm over sovereignty argument
BRUSSELS is facing another embarrassing body blow as a power struggle with Poland over the sovereignty of its highest court is set to end in defeat.
By SIMON OSBORNE
Express.co.uk
Fri, Nov 18, 2016
Successes for Brexit and Donald Trump have boosted Poland’s right-wing nationalist Law and Justice government which has outmanoeuvred the European Commission in a case which highlights how little control the EU has over democratic standards in its member states.
Warsaw has ignored the commission’s increasingly threatening demands to roll back reforms which have stripped powers from the Constitutional Tribunal, a court designed to check parliamentary power.
The defiant stance has come despite the commission’s threats of sanctions and its unprecedented decision to accuse Warsaw of endangering democracy.
A senior Polish diplomat: “As far as we are concerned, there is no procedure. We want to fix this problem by ourselves.
“There is almost no-one in Warsaw who will listen to what the commission wants to say.
“We should not be triumphalist but I do not expect any developments.”
EU members are unwilling to get involved because they do not want to fall out with Warsaw and even commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has hinted sanctions will be pointless “because some member states are already saying they will refuse to invoke it”.
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