The EU is being rocked via a scandal on the middle of its European establishments. As Russia’s conflict in Ukraine is appearing no indicators of slowing, essential choices wish to be made for European voters.
Amongst all this, concrete resolutions to Europe’s power disaster stay elusive to EU leaders.
In an unique interview, Euronews spoke to Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in Brussels on Wednesday. We started via requesting his ideas at the so-called Qatargate scandal, with the alleged bribery of EU officers, together with a European Parliament vice chairman.
“I was quite shocked”, Morawiecki published. “I hope that the rule of law is going to be back to the European Parliament and all those scandalous behaviours are going to be explained.”
Gas panic
While political drama unfolds in Brussels, EU ministers once more did not make headway in discussions over coping with the bloc’s power disaster, regardless of months of talks. The Polish PM instructed Euronews that he does not be expecting to look a leap forward any time quickly.
“I see that some countries which have to deal with this crisis — from the point of view of the prices of gas, prices of oil — do this in a very, very selfish way”, Mateusz Morawiecki mentioned. “They do not see [the] bigger picture. They do not see the impact of the natural resources and the prices on Ukraine in direct impact, because fuelling the Russian war machines should stop as quickly as possible.”
“Poland was always one of those countries, one of those very few countries, which were the most radical in terms of increasing big sanction packages very quickly, because we were of the view that the sooner we are going to really address the Russian war machine, the sooner the peace and good peace is going to be back in Europe.”
Despite numerous discussions a couple of gasoline worth cap in Europe, voters proceed to look their power expenses skyrocket as EU leaders fail to discover a answer.
“Several countries, including Poland, some months ago, [in] April, May and June, we pushed the European Commission and some other northern countries in particular, together with Italy and Spain. We were trying to action aid”, Poland’s Prime Minister defined to Euronews.
“We are trying to stimulate [an] appropriate common denominator… because we knew that the cap on gas [prices] should be found somewhere in the middle of our expectations and some expectations of Germany and the Netherlands and the others. However, the way they stubbornly blocked this is, to me, quite worrisome because I believe that we are still far from finding a compromise on a gas price cap.”
When requested if Germany and the Netherlands have been accountable for this impasse, Morawiecki insisted that “I’m not blaming anybody, but I’m just signalling that solidarity for the whole of Europe means to work out, as quickly as possible, a common denominator and not always the lowest common denominator.”
As negotiations achieve a impasse, issues are being raised that the continent’s power safety is also in danger this iciness, and for lots of winters to return. According to Poland’s Prime Minister, persons are proper to be involved.
“The European Union is…an economic powerhouse. We can push our partners — and I don’t mean Russia by this, I mean other countries — to have mid-term or long-term agreements on gas set on an appropriate level and [which are] not dependent on such huge fluctuations and speculation which happened in August of this year and in September.”
Support for Ukraine
As the conflict in Ukraine continues, French president Emmanuel Macron mentioned that the West will have to imagine giving safety promises to Russia to finish the conflict. But Mateusz Morawiecki instructed Euronews that Moscow does not want such promises.
“I think that Russia, being a superpower, [being] weakened but still having a nuclear weapon and a strong army really does not require any type of guarantees because they have the guarantees in their own hands.”
“The only country which needs support and guarantees for their sovereignty and security is Ukraine here. So this is why I think that our appropriate approach would be to support Ukraine through stronger weapon delivery and financial aid so that Putin and the Kremlin see that we are serious in supporting Ukraine not only throughout this winter but in the years to come.”
The rule of legislation: is the shoe at the different foot?
The European Union determined to freeze EU budget for Hungary over issues that this cash would possibly help corruption. When requested for his ideas about this choice, Morawiecki published that he believes Hungary is being unfairly handled.
“I can tell you that I’m astonished and shocked with the corruption in the European Parliament. That’s the first thing”, he mentioned. “I think that the procedures in the European Parliament and in the other institutions should be reviewed, big time.”
“As far as the approach of the European Union to Hungary is concerned, I think that given that Hungary has quite a conservative government, this is one of the reasons why Hungary’s attacked [so much]. I’m not an expert on the Hungarian ecosystem [but] I think that a significant part, if not all of the attacks are unjustified.”
Concerns have been additionally raised about Poland, however no such choice used to be made, main many to decry what they see as double requirements for Poland and Hungary.
“I can only emphasise that both Hungary and Poland are treated in a very unjust way, it shouldn’t have been the case.”
“We are targeted by the European Commission all the time for the last couple of years because they do not agree in repairing, or in reforming post-communist judiciary [systems].”
When requested if he felt that Brussels had softened its angle in opposition to Poland because the conflict broke out in Ukraine, Mateusz Morawiecki strongly disagreed.
“Softened? I don’t see this at all. I see that they are still very brutally intervening beyond their competencies, which are not included in the treaties. And we are quite loud about this. So this is why I’m so surprised with their approach [over the] last [few] years.”
