For more than 2 years, the results of the European Council summit in December 2020 have been the subject of debate in the United Right circle. The debates stem from a dispute over key decisions taken on Poland’s behalf by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, the effects of which we are seeing today. Importantly, regardless of the fact that sovereign Poland and the Prime Minister’s circles differ in their positions, this is a factual debate, and it is also the strength of our camp. This is what requires care of Polish affairs.
One of the points of contention related to the decisions taken at this summit is the issue of the climate package called FitFor55.
Yesterday, on the pages of wPolityce.pl, in the text of one of the authors of the Polish climate policy and negotiator of climate packages within the EU, Minister Adam Guibourgé-Czetwertyński, we could read several statements that require comment or correction.
First, he stated that “it is not true that the Prime Minister of Poland could block anything at the European Council in 2020”. It should be mentioned first of all that the European Council, in accordance with art. 15 of the Treaty on European Union, composed of the Heads of Government, “gives impetus to the development of the Union and defines overall political directions and priorities”. Its decisions are taken by the European Council by consensus, including the conclusions of European Council summits. Consensus, of course, is unanimity. In point 12 of the conclusions of the European Council summit of 10-11 December 2020, we read that the heads of government of the EU countries, as the European Council, a binding EU target to reduce EU net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030. compared to 1990 levels. Calls on the co-legislators to include this new target in the proposal for a European climate law and to adopt it swiftly’.
The result of this call from the European Council was the submission by the European Commission a few months later of a package of amendments to various directives and regulations under the name “FitFor55”. For example, the prime minister at the summit could block the decision calling for the adoption of the FitFor55 package. Therefore, it is not true that the prime minister could not block anything. The Prime Minister agreed that the FitFor55 package should be processed in the same direction as it was subsequently adopted by other EU bodies. Importantly, such an important decision, as stated by Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, was taken by the Prime Minister without the participation of the Council of Ministers.
The second issue that Minister Guibourgé-Czetwertyński raised in his comments is the issue of the possibility to veto FitFor55 in the implementation phase.
First of all, it should be mentioned that the FitFor55 package was not processed at all until the approval of the European Council was obtained. Following the first conclusions on this issue in December 2019, given Poland’s doubts at the time, the Commission did not put forward any legislative proposals pending European Council directives. The previous climate package from 2015, which preceded the guiding conclusions of the European Council, proceeded in a similar way. It should therefore be pointed out that if Poland had consistently vetoed the EU’s climate targets at European Council level, without its consent, as in the case of previous climate packages, the Commission would not have submitted the projects.
However, the Prime Minister agreed and the Commission presented the projects a few months later. It was decided to use the qualified majority procedure, which prevented Poland from vetoing these solutions in the procedure approved by the Commission.
What is disturbing, however, in the minister’s deliberations is the almost unconscious acknowledgment of this state of affairs. The minister takes it for granted that the Commission had the right to make such a decision. When asked about the possibility of vetoing FitFor55 after agreement of the European Council, such a position was also presented immediately after the summit by the then Minister of European Affairs, Konrad Szymański. Therefore, Prime Minister Morawiecki agreed to proceed with the FitFor55 package knowing that at a later stage Poland’s demands can be ignored and the entire package can be adopted against Poland’s position in the implementation phase. It really happened.
The problem is that since 2016, during Prime Minister Beata Szydło’s government, Poland has denounced the EU’s climate policy, pointing out that subsequent radical changes to the climate packages go against the treaties by going through with them in majority procedures. In this way, an attempt was made to nullify the climate package approved by Donald Tusk and Ewa Kopacz, which we have been so keen on in recent years when it comes to the price of electricity and heat. It’s about art. 192 sec. 2 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which states that unanimity is required if changes in climate policy “significantly affect a Member State’s choice between different energy sources and the overall structure of its energy supply”.
In 2018, the CJEU did not share the view of Prime Minister Beata Szydło’s government and rejected Poland’s complaint. Ministers Guibourgé-Czetwertyński and Szymański took note of this verdict and simply laid down their arms, because even the minister’s text shows full agreement with the imposition of energy solutions on Poland according to the fait accompli method, contrary to the guaranteed right of veto in the treaties.
The FitFor55 package de facto deprives Poland of the possibility of using coal. Basing the energy and heat sector on this is associated with enormous costs as a result of the ETS system. The solutions of the FitFor55 package de facto require Poland to give up coal in favor of wind turbines, photovoltaic cells and heat pumps in the short term. Poland is thus deprived of energy sovereignty, because the form of our state’s energy supply is predetermined by the European Union. It is therefore obvious that Poland has a right of veto on this issue directly under the Treaties, despite being unlawfully deprived of it. This should be remembered at every step and from a formal point of view, ways to enforce this right should be sought at EU and national level.
For this reason too, the conclusions of the European Council had to be withheld. Because the Prime Minister fully recognized the legal consequences of this verdict by the permission granted, because the Polish side did not find any reservations about the method of implementation of the FitFor55 package. Our negotiators knew very well, and it follows from the minister’s text, that after the European Council summit, Poland will lose all instruments to effectively influence the shape of FitFor55.
It therefore had to be strived for that the conclusions of the European Council would clearly indicate that the fundamental, fundamental aim of the Union is to bring about a significant change in the energy mix of the Member States, which in turn would have specific effects on the field of environmental protection. This would force the EU authorities to apply a special legislative procedure that takes into account the possibility of using the right of veto when adopting EU legal acts that are part of the “Fix for 55” package, with significant implications for the energy mix of individual countries. As the conclusions of the European Council are adopted by consensus, it was not necessary to agree on the conclusions, which allowed the adoption of EU legal acts under the ordinary legislative procedure, in which Poland has no chance (or at most a negligible chance) to block even extremely unfavorable solutions.
In his text, the minister plays down such doubts, calling them “politically motivated simplification under the guise of concern for Polish sovereignty”. Perhaps it is easier to say that nothing can be done and to fully recognize the position of the European Commission, but given the consequences of FitFor 55 for Poland, it is inappropriate to suggest political motives when presenting facts about the decision-making process regarding FitFor55. All the reservations I make in this polemic have been made many times by sovereign Poland (then Solidarna Polska), even before the decisions were made. Unfortunately they were ignored.
Sebastian Kaleta
READ ALSO: Fit for 55 and veto? ‘It is not true that the Polish Prime Minister could block anything at the European Council in 2020’
Source: wPolityce