Writing at Spiked, a Polish journalist looks at the spat going on in the EU between Poland and Germany. About Poland's current leading party PiS, he writes:
PiS dares to have its own ideas and dissents on key topics, clashing with well-established German positions. Since 2015, this has been particularly vivid in areas such as relations with Russia, securing energy supplies for Europe, and the pace (and costs) of the green transition.
Poland has been grilled and intimidated by Brussels ever since (Ursula von der Leyen became President of the European Commission), for allegedly breaking with ‘European values’, especially the rule of law. This is despite the fact that the recent judicial reforms in Poland, the very ones that have so enraged Brussels, are based on regulations that already exist in the German legal system.
In response to the reforms, von der Leyen has withheld Poland’s share of EU Covid recovery funds. And Warsaw has retaliated with its own ultimate weapon: it has made a formal reparations claim for the atrocities committed by Germany against Poland during the Second World War. Warsaw has even put a figure – $1.3 trillion – on it.
The Poles went 'nuclear,' as the saying goes. Polish courts tend to take. the view that Poland is sovereign and not compelled to do everything the EU way. Since the EU does most things unanimously, the Poles can basically grind everything in Brussels to a halt, if they so choose.
