UPDATE 1-Rule of law clash with Poland set to overshadow EU summit - Yahoo Finance
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By Jan Strupczewski and Gabriela Baczynska
BRUSSELS, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Poland's clash with Brussels over a court ruling that questioned the supremacy of European Union law has been added to the agenda of a leaders' summit this week at the request of several countries that see it as a serious crisis for the bloc.
"We will ... touch upon recent developments related to the Rule of Law during our working session," European Council President Charles Michel said in a letter to leaders of the 27 member states ahead of the Oct. 20-21 summit he will chair.
A senior EU diplomat said 12 countries had asked for the matter to be discussed at the meeting in Brussels, in addition to the spike in energy prices and the COVID-19 pandemic.
"There is a concern that this could lead to a situation in which our agenda is thrown into disarray," another senior EU diplomat said, adding that the stand-off with Poland could be discussed early in the summit to "clear the air".
Poland's relations with the EU went from bad to worse on Oct 7 when its Constitutional Tribunal ruled that elements of EU law were incompatible with the Polish constitution.
Brussels has long accused Poland's nationalist government of undermining its judiciary's independence, but the ruling calls into question the legal pillar on which the EU stands and has raised fears that Poland could eventually exit the bloc.
Poland says it has no plans for a "Polexit" and, unlike Britain before its Brexit referendum in 2016, popular support for EU membership remains high in the eastern European country.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, branding the Polish tribunal's ruling as "a direct challenge to the unity of the European legal order", on Tuesday laid out three options for a response to Warsaw, ranging from legal action to a cut in funding a suspension of its EU voting rights.
source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/1-rule-law-clash-poland-142955113.html
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