EU’s Wojciechowski ‘concerned’ about Tusk’s methods

4 months ago 18

The reforms introduced in Poland by the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk are “concerning,” EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski told Euractiv Poland.

After it replaced the rule eight-year rule of the nationalist PiS government in December last year, the broad coalition led by Tusk promised to “bring Poland back to Europe”, in part by reversing the PiS’s judicial and media reforms, which the Commission had deemed in violation of the rule of law.

Soon after taking power, the new government replaced the public media management, which under PiS had been accused of serving as a propaganda tool for the ruling party. It then dissolved the public media companies to restructure them.

The changes were based on the Commercial Code and introduced without a bill, drawing criticism from the PiS and President Andrzej Duda. PiS MPs said Tusk’s government had broken the rule of law, which was the same accusation the party used to hear from Tusk’s camp when it was in power.

“As a former judge, a former member of the National Council of the Judiciary and former head of the Supreme Audit Office, I observe Polish politics and a lot of things make me concerned,” Wojciechowski told Euractiv Poland in an interview.

He cited an attempt to use “some other legal or extralegal substitutes” instead of regular bills to introduce reforms in Poland. “This is not a good thing, and it makes me worried,” Wojciechowski admitted.

He added that Poland should be a “country based on the rule of law” and that all decisions should be made by law. He reiterated several times that he was “seriously concerned” about the current government’s methods.

Wojciechowski is a former leader of the agrarian Polish People’s Party (PSL, EPP), now part of Donald Tusk’s ruling coalition. He joined the PiS in 2010 and was nominated by the then-PiS government to be a member of Ursula von der Leyen’s Commission in 2019.

The changes in the public media, especially in the public broadcaster TVP, are necessary,” MEP Róża Thun of the ruling Poland 2050 (Renew) party told Euractiv Poland, commenting on Wojciechowski’s statement.

“The legality of the changes made will be assessed by the judiciary. What I can say for sure is that those reforms were absolutely needed. The permanent hatred and lies and having the public media overtaken by one party (under the PiS government) were definitely against the law,” she said.

“Departing from it was a necessity to regain the public trust in the public media,” she added.

Tusk’s reforms have seen Poland rise 10 places in the Reporters Without Borders Media Freedom Index compared to 2023, with the country ranked 47th in the latest edition.

While acknowledging that public awareness of press freedom in Poland “remains low”, RSF believes that the Tusk-led coalition’s victory in 2023 “offers an opportunity to improve the right to information.”

(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | Euractiv.pl)