by Aleksandra Krzysztoszek
Bickering over Poland’s holding of the six-month EU Council Presidency continues as the opposition PiS (ECR) party criticised the government’s decision to hold the informal EU leaders’ summit in Brussels instead of Warsaw.
Following President Andrzej Duda’s snub of the opening ceremony to go skiing, barbs are now being traded over where certain events will be held in yet another shadow cast over a presidency Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Europe is "lucky" to have.
Some media even reported that Tusk chose not to hold the summit in Warsaw because he did not want Duda to host it, although other official reasons were given.
Out of the 22 informal ministerial meetings to be held during Poland’s stint, the first two on the agenda, education ministers and justice home affairs ministers, will be held in Warsaw. However, an informal heads-of-state summit, traditionally held in the country holding the presidency, is scheduled for 3 February in Brussels, something that has not gone well with PiS.
“The current prime minister is depriving himself of the opportunity to have real influence on the situation in the EU. If this isn’t disregarding Poland’s interests, I don’t know what is,” former prime minister and PiS lawmaker Mateusz Morawiecki told a press conference on Monday, adding that holding the summit abroad was “a great loss.”
Morawicki, who was nominated last month to head the EU’s conservative ECR group, also urged Tusk to reverse his decision and organise the summit in Poland.
Traffic paralysis or the president’s involvement
Clapping back with an explanation, MEP Michal Szczerba of Tusk’s Civic Coalition (KO, EPP) said the decision was simply one related to logistics.
“Hosting the summit in Warsaw, unlike in Brussels, which is well-prepared for such events, essentially means bringing my home city to a standstill for a week and disrupting its normal functioning,” Szczerba insisted.
The journalist, however, pointed out that Warsaw hosted the NATO summit in 2016 and several other high-level events, including visits from US presidents.
PiS MEP Michal Dworczyk mocked his colleague’s statement, writing on X that the government “has made a circus out of Poland” and that this was the best proof of Rafal Trzaskowski’s (KO, EPP) poor performance as mayor of Warsaw.
PiS lawmaker Miroslawa Stachowiak-Rozecka even suggested that Trzaskowski, the Civic Coalition’s candidate for the upcoming presidential elections, was too busy campaigning to prepare for a summit.
EU Minister Adam Szlapka insisted that the location of an informal summit is not the issue and people should focus on the topics brought to the table.
*first published in: Euractiv.com
By: N. Peter Kramer
