Rule of Law Reform – Poland’s Government Succeeds at Achieving Nothing

After acknowledging the needed changes in the Polish legal and legislative systems, the government in Warsaw struggled to reform the necessary legislation and is now hoping the goodwill garnered from their support for Ukraine will somehow exclude them from addressing their violations of the rule of law. They are mistaken.

After months of negotiating with Brussels, threatening the European Commission and even convincing citizens that the money for the National Recovery Plan (NRP) was not needed, Mateusz Morawiecki’s government managed to get the Commission to accept Warsaw’s commitments to reform. The only thing left to do – as with most agreements – was to deliver on those pledges.

Despite the fact that the content of these commitments had been known for more than a year, and that they had been created according to the government’s declarations on the basis of a needs analysis and in response to specific challenges, the execution of the agreement had overwhelmed the Polish government.

Moreover, the recent dismissal of Konrad Szymański, the Deputy Foreign Minister in charge of European affairs, and his replacement by the far more radical Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk, is a clear signal that the Polish authorities are not interested in any dialogue with the European Commission.