Poland Threatens to Block EU Climate Talks Over Access to Funds
Poland Wants Deal on EU Funds Before Starting Climate Talks
(Bloomberg) -- Poland threatened to stonewall talks on the European Union’s climate pact unless it receives access to the bloc’s recovery package, raising the stakes of a meeting of the bloc’s leaders on Thursday.
Coal-dependent Poland seeks to gain some leverage over the EU by linking further talks on cutting greenhouse gas emissions to tapping billions of euros in pandemic recovery funds, which are held up over rule-of-law concerns.
The escalation comes amid an increasingly tense standoff over the Polish government’s unprecedented defiance of the bloc’s legal order, which is destabilizing a key EU pillar. The issue of rule of law will be added to the agenda of a two-day gathering of EU leaders starting Thursday, according to an official familiar with the decision, who asked not to be identified because it’s private.
“The sequence must be clear: first the reconstruction fund, then the discussion on the climate package,” Waldemar Buda, a deputy minister of funds and regional development, said on Wednesday. There are “several reasons” for Poland to block the EU climate pact in its current form, he told Polsat.
Poland is the bloc’s most coal-reliant nation, generating more than 70% of its electricity from the dirty fossil fuel. It has previously balked at fulfilling the EU’s ambitious agenda to cut greenhouse gases, saying it needs more time and money than other nations to transform its industry.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Tuesday that the EU was using “financial blackmail” in delaying 36 billion euros ($42 billion) in stimulus funds. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that Poland’s actions raise questions regarding the very foundations of the 27-nation union.
In his speech to EU lawmakers, Morawiecki warned that Poland wants its sovereignty respected and that financial coercion would backfire and undermine the entire EU. A day later, however, Buda signaled that the embattled government was ready to stymie climate talks -- the top issue on the commission’s agenda -- until it accesses EU funds.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the powerful leader of the country’s ruling Law & Justice party, also criticized the EU’s climate plans, saying in an interview with Gazeta Polska newspaper that it was “ridiculous” for the bloc to tighten carbon emission rules during a spike in energy prices amid gas-supply bottlenecks from Russia.
“It’s clearly visible that the actions of the Russians aimed at raising gas prices are radically changing energy security on our continent,” Kaczynski said on Wednesday. “If we don’t take these circumstances into account, and instead blindly pursue pre-set ideas, it will end tragically for the Europeans.”
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