The heads of state and government are looking for a solution with Warsaw. But Poland’s prime minister is sticking to the infiltration of EU law and does not want to adhere to ECJ rulings.
Energy crisis, migration pressure, elimination of the rule of law in the large neighboring country east of the Oder: Angela Merkel’s 107th and last EU summit brought the outgoing German Chancellor more problems on Thursday and Friday than she had probably hoped for. Because as much as she had tried in advance to bring the judicial crisis in Poland off the agenda, this was the first topic the 27 heads of state and government had to face. Mateusz Morawiecki, Poland’s Prime Minister, was intransigent and complained of alleged “blackmail”. Merkel still hoped for a solution in dialogue, which she was not alone in: “It would be a shame if people only give in when it comes to money,” said Luxembourg’s head of government, Xavier Bettel. “Europe, these are also values and rules, and if it only works with money, we also have a moral problem.”