Polish Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro held Germany responsible for the fact that Warsaw has not yet been paid its share of the EU recovery fund at a press conference on Monday.
Ziobro, who is the president of one of the smaller coalition parties, Solidarity Poland, commented on Der Spiegel's article on Saturday in his statement. According to the German weekly, Ursula von der Leyen , the president of the European Commission, would support paying Poland the amount due to it from the European Union fund intended for recovery after the coronavirus epidemic, but Vera Jourová , the vice president of the commission, opposes this.
According to Ziobro, the presentation of the situation according to the weekly newspaper is "deception on the part of the Germans" . Der Spiegel is "trying to spread the version that it was not Von der Leyen who deceived the Polish government (...), but Ms. Jourová," the minister said. He saw it as: Von der Leyen, as an important German politician , "obviously deceived the Polish prime minister and the head of state" , as he imposed new conditions on the Polish recovery plan approved as a result of several joint negotiations.
Ziobro recalled: in December 2020, he warned Mateusz Morawiecki about the decree on the rule of law conditions adopted by the European Parliament and the Council. According to him , "the concessions made to cynical (...) German politicians at the time only brought stronger pressure and blackmail on Warsaw's head".
"Poland is being stolen, and the leading role in this is played by German politics, German politicians with the German Von der Leyen at the head," said Ziobro.
He announced that Solidarity Poland will ask Morawiecki to present a plan B to resolve the situation related to recovery assets. Poland, as a sovereign member of the EU, is entitled to meet its expectations if only because the European Commission was "only an intermediary in applying for a large loan taken out partly at the expense of Polish taxpayers," Ziobro emphasized.
At the beginning of June, the Brussels committee approved the Polish recovery plan, which allows for non-refundable aid worth 23.9 billion euros and the drawing down of a loan of 11.5 billion euros. However, Warsaw and Brussels currently interpret the fulfillment of the first milestones differently.
At the beginning of August Jaroslaw Kaczynski , the leader of the ruling coalition Law and Justice party, said in an interview: When negotiating with Brussels, Poland showed "maximum goodwill and willingness to compromise", but since the European Union refuses to pay the money despite the Polish concessions, his party is forced to review the EU relationship with
Source: MTI
(Header image: Attila Husejnow/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
2022plus : Let's just remember how it was? So that the Poles were well fed. When, on the subject of "mandatory thrift and solidarity", it seemed that not only our country, but also seven other member countries were against the proposal - with the usual meanness, of course, bypassing the European Council - and they bought their votes by promising them firewood. They didn't know about ours, because we already knew their nefarious tricks (the Poles could have known too, since at that time, after accepting the joint loan, neither we nor they received the rightful amount from the restoration fund for us and them. We learned from it, they too - but only now, when it's too late.), but even though we didn't vote for the plan, we were left to ourselves.
The lesson is clear: the majority of EU leaders should not be trusted even to breathe. And to agree with them is self-destruction, because their words and promises are not worth as much as a two-penny with a hole. (For the younger ones: this hole-in-the-wall coin actually existed, but it's really worth nothing.)
