Berlin wants EU to be ‘Fourth German Reich’, says Poland’s Kaczynski

AFP via Euronews — Sun, 26 Dec 2021 11:47:55 +0000

Poland’s national-populist leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski accused Germany of trying to turn the European Union into a federalist “Fourth German Reich” in an interview published Friday.

There are countries that “are not enthusiastic about the prospect of building a German Fourth Reich on the basis of the EU,” the Law and Justice (PiS) party president told Polish far-right daily GPC.

According to Kaczynski, who is also Poland’s deputy prime minister in charge of national security, the term “Fourth German Reich” “has nothing negative about it, as it is not the Third Reich but the First”, i.e. the Holy Roman Empire.

During the recent visit of the new German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Poland, his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki described the German coalition government’s support for greater federalism in the European Union as “utopian and therefore dangerous” and reiterated that his government backed the concept of “a Europe of sovereign nations”.

Kaczynski, who is generally considered to be the “mastermind” of any significant change in Poland, added in the interview that “if we Poles agreed to such a modern submission we would be degraded in many ways”.

And he attacked the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU), which he said was “the basic instrument used” to impose federalist ideas.

The CJEU, he said, can interpret European law and draw conclusions he deemed illegitimate. “And it does,” he argued.

Brussels has been engaged in a drawn-out battle with Warsaw, notably over the judicial reforms launched by the PiS government since 2015.

These reforms, accused of undermining the independence of judges, have earned Poland several condemnations by the CJEU.

Under the influence of national-populists, the Polish Constitutional Court challenged the authority of the EU Court of Justice in June, and in October questioned the primacy of European law over Polish law.

On Wednesday, Brussels launched an infringement procedure against Poland following these rulings by the Constitutional Court, pointing out that the court “no longer meets the requirements of an independent and impartial court established by law, as required by the Treaty”.

Source: https://www.euronews.com/2021/12/24/berlin-wants-eu-to-be-fourth-german-reich-says-poland-s-kaczynski

[Disclaimer]

The post Berlin wants EU to be ‘Fourth German Reich’, says Poland’s Kaczynski first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

EU sues Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland over low refugee intake

Deutsche Welle — Thu, 07 Dec 2017 05:25:09 +0000

The European Commission is suing eastern member states for failing to fulfill their legal obligations in accepting a share of asylum seekers. The defendants claim that the EU is interfering with their sovereignty.

The European Commission took the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) Thursday over their failure to accept their required quotas for refugees.

The contentious scheme, which was adopted at the height of the refugee crisis in 2015, was focused on “burden-sharing,” meaning that 160,000 refugees should be relocated across most of the bloc’s 28 member-states to ease the burden on Greece and Italy.

It means that the three eastern nations would have to settle around 8,000 migrants between them as part of the quota. However, so far Hungary and Poland have taken in none at all, while the Czech Republic has accepted just 12.

By pursuing these countries at the ECJ, Brussels is showing its determination to see this scheme carried out. It is also fueling a new clash between the EU body and important eastern member states.

“The European Commission has today decided to refer the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland to the Court of Justice of the EU for non-compliance with their legal obligations on relocation,” the Commission said in a statement. “This is why the Commission has decided to move to the next stage of the infringement procedure and refer the three member states to the Court of Justice of the EU.”

The three countries, however, claim that Brussels is attempting to interfere with their national sovereignty. They could face heavy fines if they do not comply with any court ruling on their duty to accept refugees.

The refugee relocation scheme has been mostly unsuccessful in the two-and-a-half years since it was adopted. As of last week, only around 32,000 refugees had been relocated as part of the program.

The continued disagreement over the refugee quota scheme has hampered attempts to reform the EU’s asylum policy, with EU leaders set to address the issue at a summit in Brussels on December 14-15.

Poland says it’s ready to defend position

Following the European Commission’s declaration Thursday, Poland’s Deputy Foreign Minister Konrad Szymanski said his government was ready to defend its decision to refuse migrants before the ECJ.

Poland’s ruling populist Law and Justice (PiS) party has long insisted that it will not admit migrants from Africa and the Middle East, citing security concerns following a spate deadly Islamist attacks in western Europe, as well as problems associated with determining the identify of migrants.

“No one will lift the duty of providing public safety from the Polish government,” Szymanski told state news agency PAP.

Greece and Italy have been stretched to breaking point with huge numbers of refugee arrivals

Hungary also in the dock for NGO, education reforms

The European Commission on Thursday also announced that it was also taking Hungary to court for additional breaches of EU laws.

Recent reforms concerning foreign-funded non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and universities have drawn major ire from Brussels. Thursday’s announcement came after the ECJ said Hungary’s conservative government, led by Viktor Orban, had failed to satisfy the Commission’s concerns on the two issues.

Under the new NGO reforms, organizations receiving over €24,000 ($28,293) of foreign financing have to register as “civic organizations funded from abroad.” The new education law, meanwhile, changes the requirements for foreign universities, forcing them to have run operations in their home country to also run in Hungary. The Commission found that the act “disproportionately restricts” an institution’s operations and runs counter to the right to academic freedom.

The new laws are widely seen as a government bid to curtail the influence of Hungarian-born financier George Soros, who founded the Central European University in Budapest and whose Open Society Foundations includes a number NGOs.

Source: http://www.dw.com/en/eu-sues-czech-republic-hungary-and-poland-over-low-refugee-intake/a-41691870

[Disclaimer]

The post EU sues Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland over low refugee intake first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Law and Justice (PiS) party - Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association

Berlin wants EU to be ‘Fourth German Reich’, says Poland’s Kaczynski

EU sues Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland over low refugee intake