'It's a smear campaign!' Dutch MEP savages EU bid to pressure Poland into law changes
POLAND has a right to question EU legislation supremacy as the eastern European country challenges the bloc, Dutch MEP
Dutch MEP has 'sympathy' for Poland's challenge to EU supremacy
Dutch MEP Rob Roos has called European Union's pressure on Poland into domestic law changes a “smear campaign”, saying that he doesn’t think that the country is “breaking any rules”. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said she would act to prevent Poland from undermining EU values in response to a top Polish court ruling that rejected key parts of EU law.
Speaking to BBC Newsnight, Mr Roos said: “The judicial system is a national competition, and it's not something that you should...It’s national competence.
“And it’s not up to the EU to have a voice in that.
“So, yes, I have sympathy for them.”
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“You are the few voices who don't agree with the majority who are happy to abide by EU laws.”
The MEP replied: “Well, we are not federalists that's correct.
“We are in favour of having a community of sovereign nation-states and we're working together on economical programs, etc.
“And we don't want that there is more integration of the member states.
“And we definitely do not want to go to a superstate, and that is what the progressive wants."
He added: “In this case, all the Conservative Member States are on the fire and maybe we can even say that it is a smear campaign.
“If you do not comply with all this European Union to go further and to go in more integration, then they will do everything to make life very difficult for such a member state.”
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has accused the EU of blackmail over the rule of law.
Mrs von der Leyen said the situation had to be resolved.
She said: "This ruling calls into question the foundations of the European Union.
“It is a direct challenge to the unity of the European legal order.”
It came after Poland's Constitutional Tribunal ruled that some parts of EU law need to be rejected as they allegedly contradict domestic legislation.