Nawrocki wants changes in the EU. “The position of President of the European Council should be abolished”

On Monday, President Karol Nawrocki presented his program for the European Union, opposing the process of EU centralization, at Charles University in Prague. He supported the abolition of the position of President of the European Council; he also pointed out the need for changes in the voting system in the EU Council.

On Monday, Nawrocki gave a lecture at Charles University in Prague on the future of the European Union and attempts at its centralization, which he opposes. The president called for the rejection of such projects. In Nawrocki's opinion, the centralization process would lead to the deprivation of sovereignty of the member states, “except the two largest ones”, and to the weakening of democratic systems. According to the Polish head of state, the ability to outvote member states at the EU forum would mean depriving them of the role of “masters of the treaties”.

The president emphasized that the EU is our “natural political environment.” He added that Poland has the right to its own vision of the Union. He presented the “Polish program for the European Union”, in which the starting point for the discussion is the assumption that the “masters of the treaties” and sovereigns who decide on the shape of European integration “are and must remain the member states, as the only functioning European democracies.”

Nawrocki added that Poland supports maintaining the principle of unanimity in the areas where this principle currently applies, and maintaining the “one country – one commissioner” rule. According to this rule, he added, each European Union country, even the smallest one, must have a commissioner appointed by it in the EU's highest administrative body. He also proposed a ban on appointing people to top EU positions without the recommendation of the government of their country of origin.

Nawrocki also spoke in favor of restoring the EU presidency to the head of the executive authority of the member state currently holding the presidency of the EU Council. This would mean a return to the nature of the presidency before the Lisbon Treaty.

– Therefore, Poland also proposes abolishing the position of President of the European Council. The President of the Council must be, as before, the president, prime minister or chancellor of his country, i.e. a politician with a democratic mandate and his own political base, and not an official-bureaucrat dependent on the support of the great EU powers, the president emphasized.

As he noted, the same applies to the EU Foreign Affairs Council, which is headed by “an official dependent on the great powers, and not a democratically mandated minister of foreign affairs of the country holding the presidency.”

The president also pointed out the need to change the voting system in the EU Council – so as to limit the advantage of the largest countries. He appealed for the pragmatic functioning of the Union without “ideological pressure” and for limiting the competences of EU institutions to selected areas, such as economic development or demographic issues.

– This requires giving up excessive ambitions to regulate the entire life of member states and their citizens and abandoning the intention to shape all aspects of policy, sometimes bypassing or violating the will of citizens – noted Nawrocki.

Referring to geopolitical issues, the president called for abandoning the ambition of the EU competing with NATO in the security dimension. He was also critical of attempts to centralize arms programs, assessing that they favor the arms industries of Germany and France and ignore the needs of the countries on the eastern flank of the Alliance.

– Moreover, we support the rejection of the European Commission regulation (DSA) (Digital Services Act – PAP). The idea of ​​any censorship is foreign to Polish political culture, he said.

The president emphasized that he supports Poland's membership in the EU, but – as he added – systemic issues, justice and security “are reserved exclusively for the Polish constitution, the Polish president and the Polish government.” He announced that his role is to build “a stronger Central Europe within the EU”, in cooperation with the countries of the region. (PAP)

amk/ ptg/ par/ kbm/ mhr/