UPDATE: Polish PM to address MEPs amid spat over EU law
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. Photo: PAP/Piotr Nowak

UPDATE: Polish PM to address MEPs amid spat over EU law

The Polish prime minister will next week take part in a European Parliament debate focusing on a recent ruling by his country’s constitutional court amid a dispute over the primacy of European Union law, Poland’s PAP news agency reported on Thursday, citing a source in the EU legislature. It is reported by Upmp.news with reference to Polskie radio.

The debate is scheduled for 9 p.m. on Tuesday, the Polish state news agency reported.

The news came after the Polish government spokesman tweeted a day earlier that Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki had asked to address European lawmakers to explain Warsaw’s stance in a dispute with Brussels over whether the national constitution trumps EU law.

“Premier Morawiecki has sent a request to the European Parliament President to take part in the assembly’s next sitting in order to present Poland’s position during the planned parliamentary debate,” the government spokesman, Piotr Müller, said in a tweet on Wednesday.

In a landmark judgment, Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal ruled last Thursday that parts of EU treaties were incompatible with the Polish constitution.

The verdict added to a long-running dispute between the Polish government and EU institutions. It appeared to question a key tenet of European integration and threatened to escalate tension between Warsaw and Brussels.

Since the top court’s verdict, Poland’s ruling conservatives have been accused by the opposition of effectively preparing an exit from the European Union, of which the country has been part since 2004.

Shortly after the ruling last week, Polish conservative Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that, by judging some articles of the bloc’s treaties unconstitutional in the country, the Constitutional Tribunal confirmed the primacy of the national constitution over EU law.

The Polish foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday that the country’s Constitutional Tribunal “reaffirmed the hierarchy of the sources of law” in the country and across the European Union.

It also said that “all obligations arising from both primary and secondary European Union law remain in force and thus, will continue to be fully respected by Poland.”

Morawiecki said on Sunday that “all obligations arising from the bloc’s regulations remain in force” and that any talk of a Polexit “is fake news.”

(gs)

Source: PAP