Poland’s feuding president and prime minister have struck a deal on the appointment of the country’s European Commissioner.
Polish President Andrzej Duda has approved the choice of Piotr Serafin to be Poland’s candidate for the post of European Commissioner after Prime Minister Donald Tusk adhered to the law on the countersignature by the president for that appointment.
Duda’s decision on August 16 was taken after Tusk had presented Serafin as the government’s choice on August 13, following consultations with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The President insisted that Serafin must be formally presented to the head of state for approval in accordance with a law passed in 2023 that gives the president the right to countersign such nominations.
Tusk and his government had in the past argued that this law was unconstitutional as the power to nominate candidates to international organisations was exclusively in the hands of the executive and not the head of state.
Still, the PM finally decided to present Serafin in accordance with the law after Duda made it clear that he had no real objections to Serafin, whom he had approved as Poland’s Permanent Representative in Brussels in December of last year.
The compromise struck between Tusk and Duda will be welcomed by those planning the Polish presidency of the Council of the European Union, which is due to begin in January 2025. It will also mean that the Commission will avoid having to take a position on whether the nomination made by the Polish Government without the President’s approval was valid.
Tusk, speaking after a meeting of his cabinet on August 13, told reporters that it was highly likely that Serafin, who is a close associate of the PM having been his chief of staff when he held the Presidency of the European Council from 2014-2019, would receive the important EU budget portfolio in the share-out of briefs for the new European Commission.
This outbreak of peace between Duda and the government will likely not stretch to other areas. On the same day that the President approved Tusk’s choice of commissioner, he vetoed the government’s legislation on the disbanding of the Russian influence commission. He is still blocking the appointment of around 50 new ambassadors approved by Poland’s foreign ministry.
Duda is a close ally of the previous Law and Justice (PiS) party government and has been highly critical of the Tusk administration, especially regarding domestic issues. Yet on foreign and security policy, they have found common ground, especially with regard to handling the war in Ukraine and Warsaw’s alliance with the US.
Despite the agreement over the appointment of Serafin, Duda and the Tusk government also remain on opposing sides with regard to the future development of the EU. Duda wants to see an EU of nation-states while Tusk prefers a more integrated, although not necessarily federal, model.
