EU summit to load pressure on Poland over rule of law

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders will pressure a defiant Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Thursday to fall back into line on recognizing that EU law trumps national decision-making, hoping that dialogue will stave off a fundamental crisis in the bloc.

Morawiecki this week painted a picture of an overbearing union treating its 27 member nations as mere provinces, free to impose values at will against the wishes of sovereign people. Almost all other countries countered that respecting common rules and values is essential in a bloc if it is not to unravel.

If the sniping and accusations continue unchecked it could turn into the biggest institutional crisis for the EU since the United Kingdom decided to leave five years ago.

“We have to strictly remind everyone that those rules have been chosen. And if they no longer apply, there no longer is a European project,” said France's Europe Minister Clement Beaune in Paris early Thursday.

“France provides financial aid to Poland every day and you cannot help someone who refuses to respect a deal that was jointly signed,” Beaune told LCI, raising the specter of financial penalties if Warsaw refuses to change its ways.

“It is easy to get the money and the advantages that Europe brings and then not respect the rules,” he said.

EU Commission Vice-President Vera Jourova agreed but insisted financial measures could follow. “We prefer dialogue,” she said, “but we will need other instruments, if needed.”

Still, France threw itself behind the stance of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has called for calm, dialogue and compromise since the bloc could ill afford such a fundamental fight as it seeks to emerge from the biggest economic crisis in its history.

EU nations have warned for years against what they see as a...