“That’s why the president signed into law the radio and television bill” that the conservative-dominated parliament approved late last month. Of more immediate concern in Brussels, however, are recent political developments in Poland.
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Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, right, greets European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker upon his arrival at the Maritime Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016.
Sadurska said the president shares concerns for the quality of Poland’s media voiced by some European Union leaders, and believes the new law will help that goal.
The spokesman for President Andrzej Duda justified the bill by denouncing what he described as the previous liberal government’s “one-party control” of public media and a lack of real pluralism. In an interview with a German newspaper on Sunday, Germany’s commissioner, Günther Oettinger, accused Poland of breaching “common European values” and warned of EU action.
In an unprecedented move, the commission is set to debate on 13 January the state of the rule of law in Poland, which could theoretically result in Poland losing its European Union voting rights on matters that concern the entire 28-nation bloc. The move follows the introduction of a media law by Poland’s new Law and Justice party government that allows it to replace the management of public radio and TV stations without notice or consultation. The council’s commissioner for human rights, Nils Muižnieks, also asked the president not to sign the law.
Despite the unease in Brussels about developments in Poland, the European Commission’s power to intervene in the governmental process in a member state is limited.
But politically this is unlikely.
Another new law affects Poland’s top constitutional court and critics have accused the PiS government of eating away at democratic principles in the EU’s largest eastern economy, which joined the bloc in 2004.
“It’s the first step in a media takeover”.
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After a year when fresh divisions between “old” and “new” Europe were opened up over the refugee crisis, the European Union will be reluctant to further alienate members in the east.
