Junior coalition member to set red lines defining its presence in gov't

The head of Solidary Poland, a junior party in the ruling United Right coalition, has announced that he will ask the president to call a meeting of the Cabinet Council to debate Poland's relations with the European Union following an EU top court verdict .

Zbigniew Ziobro added on Thursday that, during a party board meeting on Saturday, Solidary Poland would the define the "red lines" marking its presence in the government.

Ziobro, who is also justice minister, made the statement following a Wednesday ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which threw out complaints brought by Poland and Hungary concerning a mechanism linking EU funding to respect for the rule of law by a member state.

The court said that the mechanism had been adopted on the appropriate legal basis, was consistent with the procedure laid down in Article 7 of the EU Treaty, did not exceed the limits of the competences conferred on the European Union, and respected the principle of legal certainty.

Following the CJEU announcement, Ziobro accused Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish prime minister, of making a "very serious, political, historic mistake" by agreeing to the mechanism.

It had been agreed upon by negotiators from the European Parliament and the German presidency of the EU in November 2020, and then approved by the ambassadors of the member states.

Referring to the same issue on Thursday, Ziobro told a Polsat News television programme that "mistakes should be called mistakes in order not to repeat them in the future and to prevent them."

"...the situation is serious, but we can still deal with it, reflect on our relations with the EU and implement some changes," the minister said.

Asked about Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of Law and Justice, the dominant party in the United Right, calling his comments about the prime minister "disappointing," Ziobro said that he respected Kaczynski's opinion, but added that his party's trust in European politics was limited after what had happened.

"And we still hope that, what is a mistake in our opinion, will be perceived in the same way by our entire political camp," he stated.

Asked what "red lines' would need to be crossed for him to leave the government, Ziobro said that the Solidary Poland board would meet on Saturday to adopt concrete resolutions. He also repeated that he would ask President Andrzej Duda to convene a meeting of the Cabinet Council to discuss Poland's relations with the EU following the "historic verdict," which "legitimises" illegal actions that are incompatible with the EU Treaties.