Poland Triumphs At
Stormy Brussels Summit
Rule of law to apply only to budget issues, not ideology
By Robert Strybel
Warsaw Correspondent
WARSAW–Following days of bitter debate. European Union leaders meeting at Brussels, Belgium finally agreed on a landmark $2.1-trillion budget and coronavirus recovery package. Consensus had been obstructed by an attempt to link funds to rule-of-law notions as defined by liberal-leftist EU bureaucrats. Poland and Hungary had reacted by deciding to veto the agreement as a threat to their national sovereignty.
At July’s budget summit, a rule-of-law mechanism had been introduced to ensure proper spending of EU funds. But in November, the rotating, then German-led EU Presidency succumbed to pressure from the European Parliament and expanded the list to include “fundamental EU values.” Those would include abortion on demand and the promotion of LGBT ideology which violate the Polish Constitution. They also violate the EU’s own treaties which do not allow EU politicians to interfere in either the family issues and mores or judicial matters of member nations.
Poland and Hungary, which have long been the whipping boys of Europe’s anti-conservative leftist elites, feared that could be used to force them to accept undocumented Muslim migrants, abandon judicial reforms, adopt pro-LGBT/Gender policies and in future possibly even legalize euthanasia. German Chancellor Angela Merkel worked overtime to hammer out a fragile compromise. only grudgingly accepted by some countries. Poland and Hungary agreed to withdraw their veto threat after being assured that the rule-of-law clause would only apply only to spending, not political or ideological issues.
Under the deal, over the 2021-2027 budget period Poland is due to receive a record $210-billion package of subsidies and Covid-recovery funds. It will also get an additional $60 billion to facilitate its transition to cleaner, non-coal-based energy. The compromise also made it possible for influential and image-conscious Chancellor Merkel, for whom this was her last EU summit, to avoid going down as someone who had left the EU in budgetary disarray.
The mainstream media’s liberal-leftist narration had portrayed Poland as one of two “bad guys” opposed to the rule of law and failed to impartially present Warsaw’s line of defense. In actuality, Poland opposes the creation of rule-of-law innovations not enshrined in EU treaties signed when joining the community in 2005 and not unanimously approved by all 27 member nations.
Holland, now Poland’s severest critic, has legalized the extermination of retarded children up to age 12 but does not regard that as a human-rights violation. And did not Merkel herself violate the Dublin Regulation and the Schengen Treaty when in 2015 she unilaterally invited hordes of Muslim migrants? Apparently it all depends on who is defining the rule of law and why.
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