Ruling party official says 'no' to EU rule of law demands

Marek Suski, head of the ruling party Law and Justice (PiS) caucus, has said Poland will not yield to what he called blackmail from Brussels over the country's rule of law standards.

Suski complained to public broadcaster Polish Radio 24, on Saturday, that "the EU is looking for a pretext to strip Poland of its sovereignty and turn the EU into a federation where Poland will have nothing to say."

The EU has demanded a number of changes in the Polish justice system to bring it back to EU standards, saying that the ruling party's reforms has made the system politicised.

Poland has agreed to make some changes to its justice system to secure billions of euros in the EU's post-pandemic recovery funds. Recently, it reformed a disciplinary panel for judges at the Supreme Court, which was one of the EU's conditions.

But Suski said that Poland's concessions bred more and more demands from Brussels.

"Whatever we do, there are ever more demands," Suski said. "At some moment we have to say: no more blackmailing Poland, we won't yield to slavery imposed by Brussels, we're a proud nation with a great history."

No recovery money has been transferred to Poland yet as the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, has made the payouts dependent on meeting the milestones set in the National Recovery Plan, an agreement between Poland and the EU on how the money should be spent.