Three options: Legal, Financial, suspending voting rights Adds background information and comment by Finnish Minister BRUSSELS, Oct 19 Reuters - The European Commission's chief executive warned Poland on Tuesday that its challenge to the supremacy of European Union law called into question the very foundations of 27 nations bloc and could not go unpunished.
Poland's Constitutional Tribunal ruled last week that parts of the Polish constitution are incompatible with EU law, undermining the legal pillar on which the union stands and raising fears that Poland could eventually leave the bloc.
Poland's nationalist Law and Justice Party says it has no plans for a Polexit and - unlike Britain before its Brexit referendum in 2016 - popular support for membership of the EU remains high in Poland.
However, other Member States were dismayed by Warsaw's defiance of the EU, including pm Mateusz Morawiecki's complaint in a letter on Monday of mission creep that he warned would lead to a democratic organism, governed by institutions deprived of central control Speaking ahead of Morawiecki in a debate on the row in Strasbourg on Tuesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen laid out three options for a response to the Polish court's attack on the
The European Commission is, at the moment, serious about assessing this judgment. I can already tell you: I am deeply concerned, she said. Is this ruling pointless? It is a direct challenge to the unity of legal system in Europe. She said a first option is so called infringements, where the European Commission challenges the Polish court's decision, which could result in fines.
Another option is a conditionality mechanism and other financial tools whereby EU funds would be withheld from Poland.
Bis Warsaw's clash with Brussels is resolved, it is unlikely to see any of the 23.9 billion euros in grants and 12.1 billion in cheap loans that it Applied for as part of the EU recovery fund after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The EU could even block Polish access to EU grants for structural and development projects in the budget of 2021 - 2027 estimated at around 70 billion euros.
Von der Leyen said a third option is the application of Article 7 of the EU's Treaties. Under this, a member states' rights - including the right to vote on EU decisions - can be suspended because they have breached core values of the bloc.
Morawiecki, speaking next in the EU assembly, accused the bloc of overstepping its authority.
EU competences have clear boundaries, we must not remain silent when those boundaries are breached. And so we say yes to European universalism, but we give no to European centralism, he said.
A succession of members of parliament also stood up to castigate the Polish leader, while some EU Ministers with seats in Luxembourg joined the chorus of criticism.
The Finnish Minister for European Affairs said that compromise could not be the solution and the European Commission must act.
Tytti Tuppurainen told reporters that the country did not want to escort anyone out.