Polish MEPs have sharply criticised a proposal by the European Parliament’s liberal majority to rescind member states’ right to sovereignty and place them in the hands of Brussels.
On Tuesday, the European Parliament held a debate on a report issued by the Constitutional Affairs Committee (AFCO), which proposes certain amendments to the EU treaties. The most significant proposal aims to abolish the unanimous voting rule in the EU Council in 65 areas.
„Stop pretending that you want what is good for Europe! This proposal was construed in line with article 7 of the German coalition agreement. Whenever Germany tried to take responsibility, it’s always ended in tragedy for Germany and for Europe. You are leading Europe into another disaster,” – said Patryk Jaki, a member of the Polish Law and Justice (PiS) party in the European Parliament, during a debate on the proposal. His party colleague, former Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, said no to the idea of creating a United States of Europe. She emphasized that Europe was made up of different peoples, different cultures, different traditions and languages. At some point, European countries decided to work together to provide greater security, cooperation and prosperity for their citizens. But they agreed to do so whilst respecting their own sovereignty and diversity, and so the European Union was born, she said.
„Today in this Chamber, it was about European citizens. There is no such thing as a European state, even if the leftist-liberal majority is currently trying to make Europeans believe that it cares about them. No! It is up to Europeans to decide how they bring up their children, what they learn at school and how they defend themselves, when there’s an enemy across the border. Our interest lies in building an European Union that’s stronger precisely because it respects the member states. It respects diversity and builds unity in that diversity,” – Beata Szydlo added. Ryszard Legutko, also from Poland’s ruling PiS party, stressed that the proposal’s sole aim was to revoke powers belonging to member states in a bid to place them in the hands of a centralised Brussels.
„This proposal shows how dangerous the EU has become. It reminds me of the story of Dr Frankenstein, who wanted to create a wonderful human being but instead created a monster. This is about stealing all the important powers of the member states,” – Mr Legutko argued. His party colleague Jacek Saryusz-Wolski underlined that the proposed reform would create a superstate that would divide member states into regions. „All this is being done under the false pretext of preparing for enlargement, and all that remains is a veto on enlargement. This is hypocrisy at its best,” – he said, adding that the proposal was illegal because it favoured countries with large populations and did not comply with the principle of equal treatment of EU member states, irrespective of their population. „It’s also undemocratic, because it takes decisions away from member states where democracy works best and puts them at European level, where the democratic deficit is the greatest and where there are no European democrats,” he said.
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