The European Commission has signalled its determination to challenge Poland over legislation setting up a special commission to investigate Russian influence. The EC is concerned the new law will be used to attack the Polish opposition led by Donald Tusk.
Commission spokeswoman Anitta Hipper told a press conference on August 3 that “Poland’s law on the commission to investigate Russia’s influence on Poland’s security still raises very serious concerns in the European Commission.” She added that “the concerns were related to its compliance with EU law when the commission becomes operational.”
This is despite the fact that, following an intervention by Polish President Andrzej Duda, the law was recently amended, removing the most controversial clause that would have enabled the commission to debar individuals from holding office.
That clause was widely seen as targeting Tusk, who was Polish Prime Minister from 2007 to 2014 during the period of the West’s “reset” with Russia. Tusk is currently the leader of Poland’s largest opposition party, the PO.
The controversial debarring clause was slammed by the opposition, the EC and the US administration.
According to the amended rules, the investigative commission will not include any parliamentarians in its ranks, and its decisions can be challenged in the courts. It will only be able to declare that a person had “acted under Russian influence” and therefore could not be guaranteed to have undertaken the “proper performance of public duties”.
For both the EC and Poland’s opposition the changes simply make the law a political rather than judicial instrument. As a result, the EC says it is likely to pursue its objections to the legislation in the European Court of Justice.
The EC is armed with a highly critical report by the Venice Commission, the expert advisory body of the Council of Europe. According to the report, the Russian influence commission’s powers are “extraordinary, intrusive, retroactive and non-judicial in nature”.
These concerns, along with the fact that commission members are appointed by Polish Parliament, means it “resembles a body of a political nature [and] enjoys virtually unlimited discretion” with no “guarantees against political misuse”.
That, the report says, could lead to “influence on the electoral process” through public interrogations that can result in political opponents being labelled “enemies of the state”. The Venice Commission recommended that the law be repealed.
Poland’s ruling party PiS insists the commission is needed to “root out Russian influence” and that similar bodies have been set up in other countries following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The commission members are due to be appointed in mid-August and will begin deliberations before this autumn’s Polish general election.
The ruling party has not hidden its intention to challenge Tusk over his record on Russia when he was prime minister.
Top EC officials including President Ursula von der Leyen and Manfred Weber, the leader of the EPP group in the European Parliament, have not hidden their desire for a change of government in Poland.
