‘This is WAR!’ Defiant Poland vows to FIGHT Brussels as divisions threaten to rip EU apart
BRUSSELS’ growing crisis in Eastern Europe intensified last night as defiant Polish ministers insisted they will fight eurocrats’ attempts to block their controversial domestic reforms.
By NICK GUTTERIDGE, BRUSSELS CORRESPONDENT
Express.co.uk
Mon, Jul 31, 2017
Warsaw openly mocked Jean-Claude Juncker’s Commission and vowed to follow the abrasive eurosceptic line set by near neighbour Hungary as relations between the EU and its eastern members plunged further into the mire.
Senior Polish figures strongly indicated they will ignore any European Court of Justice (ECJ) order against them after eurocrats decided to launch infringement proceedings over changes to the judiciary.
Brussels has been alarmed by plans to reform the justice system in Poland, including by giving ministers more powers over the hiring and firing of judges, saying they contravene European law.
A number of independent commentators and experts have also expressed grave concerns over the proposals, which it is feared would put too much influence over the legal system in the hands of politicians.
But the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS), led by a number of veteran eurosceptics, has vowed to go ahead with the changes anyway paving the way for another bruising battle with the EU.
Poland, alongside its neighbours Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, are already fighting Brussels over the imposition of migrant quotas – a court case they look set to lose.
But it is arguably Warsaw’s domestic reforms which pose the most serious challenge for eurocrats, who have said they will not hesitate to trigger Article 7 and suspend Poland’s voting rights if they are not changed.
Kicking a country off the EU Council of ministers, even for a temporary period, would be an unprecedented move in European history and could spark a spiralling war of attrition that would threaten the bloc’s existence.
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