Poland summons Belgian ambassador over PM’s sharp words

The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has summoned the Belgian ambassador to Poland, Luc Jacobs, out of anger over Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo’s forceful rebuke of Warsaw’s approach to its rule-of-law fight with Brussels.

Jacobs will meet Poland’s Secretary of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk on Friday afternoon, the ministry’s spokesperson confirmed. Countries typically use such requests to convey extreme displeasure.

Belgium’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also confirmed the meeting, which illustrates the growing friction within the EU over alleged democratic backsliding in Poland. Numerous EU countries are frustrated with the country’s judiciary reforms, which critics say have undermined judicial independence, as well as a court ruling that questioned the supremacy of EU law.

De Croo vented his own displeasure with Poland during a speech Wednesday at the opening ceremony of the College of Europe, a university in Bruges. He reacted to a Financial Times interview with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in which the leader pledged to defend his country “with any weapons” if the European Commission “starts the third world war” by withholding EU funds over its rule-of-law dispute with Warsaw.  

De Croo shot back at the violent rhetoric.

“To those who give incendiary interviews and think it’s necessary to declare a new world war in the Financial Times, I want to say: You are playing a dangerous game, you are playing with fire when waging war with your European colleagues for internal political reasons,” De Croo told the students. 

He also stressed, however, that the years-long rule-of-law conflict between Warsaw and Brussels can’t simply be solved with rulings from the Court of Justice of the EU, which has ordered Poland to shutter a disciplinary chamber for judges and recently imposed a €1 million-per-day fine on the country until it complies. Other EU institutions have to act, he argued.

“This is a fundamental political problem that needs to be solved politically, by the [European] Council and by the European Parliament,” De Croo said. “By setting out and anchoring the ground rules for our Union: the rule of law, democracy and all the fundamental rights — things that have been self-evident for so long but are no longer today. And by making these ground rules enforceable — better than they are today.”