Poland Fights EU Over Rule of Law, Courts EU Over Immigration Crisis - Foreign Policy

WARSAW, Poland—Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party has overseen the dismantlement of the Central European nation’s independent judiciary, targeted gay and lesbian rights, rolled back women’s reproductive rights, and gutted the media. Democratic backsliding set off alarm bells in Brussels as relations between the two came to a head in October, when Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal ruled that some European Union laws were incompatible with the country’s constitution.

Faced with such a frontal challenge to the EU’s fundamental order, Brussels has responded halfheartedly, only suspending around $41.2 billion in pandemic recovery funding. Poland came back fighting. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said financial penalties amounted to “blackmail,” and another Polish minister threatened to undermine key EU climate legislation.

To deal with one crisis in the west, Poland looked east. When Belarus’s strongman, Aleksandr Lukashenko, orchestrated a migration crisis on Poland’s eastern border this year in response to EU sanctions, the Law and Justice party took a hard line on migration. Between September and November, the Polish government imposed a state of emergency 2 miles from its border with Belarus. In this gray zone, the Polish border police worked without scrutiny from international aid organizations or journalists. Migrants caught attempting to cross into Poland from Belarus were often pushed back, contrary to international rules on asylum.

source: https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/12/01/poland-crisis-european-union-immigration-democracy-law/

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