Von der Leyen pulls out of press conference with Nawrocki at V4 summit, Bloomberg reports

Summit agenda in Trenčín

Presidents of Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary met in Trenčín, Slovakia, on Thursday, 5 November, for a Visegrad Group summit. Karol Nawrocki arrived in Slovakia on Wednesday afternoon and attended a meeting of the group's central bank representatives that day. The Thursday programme opened with a welcome ceremony in the castle courtyard, followed by a joint session and a working breakfast with Ursula von der Leyen, and it was to end with a visit to a restored heritage railway bridge.

Marcin Przydacz, head of the presidential International Policy Bureau, outlined three themes before the meeting: security, energy and the future of Euro-Atlantic structures. Security was framed around threats from Russia, while the energy talks were to take account of the situation in the Middle East. Enlargement, including the membership aspirations of Ukraine and Moldova, was also on the list. Przydacz also published the make-up of the official Polish delegation: deputy Sejm speakers Krzysztof Bosak and Marcin Horała, Mariusz Błaszczak, chair of the Law and Justice parliamentary club, and deputy foreign minister Artur Harazim.

Enlargement and the EU agenda

Slovak President Peter Pellegrini said after the Thursday meeting that EU enlargement had been the main topic, and that the presidents regarded it as one of the most strategic investments in Europe's security and future development. Przydacz argued that candidate countries must carry out reforms and build good relations with their neighbours, pointing to Poland and Ukraine as an example. He made the point in these words:

“It is clear that candidate countries must be required to carry out appropriate reforms.”

He added that any Ukrainian accession would depend on Poland rather than the other way round, and that Kyiv should want the best possible relations with Warsaw, including on historical policy. On climate policy, Przydacz said the EU's approach needed critical assessment, because excessive ideology could weaken the competitiveness of the European economy.

Von der Leyen and the press conference

Bloomberg, as cited by Rzeczpospolita, reported that von der Leyen withdrew from a press conference after the summit that was to include Nawrocki. Its sources said she had first planned to cancel her attendance at the summit altogether, but changed her mind out of concern that such a decision would draw negative attention. Instead she dropped the post-summit briefing, which the sources described as a favour to Donald Tusk: she did not want her presence to lend legitimacy to Nawrocki's position on the Constitutional Tribunal. Asked by reporters about a possible meeting between Nawrocki and von der Leyen, Przydacz accused her of a selective approach to the rule of law and did not confirm whether the president would raise the tribunal with her. Earlier, the European Commission had backed the government in the dispute, noting that the election of tribunal judges falls under the Sejm's competence. EU rule-of-law commissioner Michael McGrath said the Polish Constitutional Tribunal must be able to function under the Polish constitution and the case law of the EU Court of Justice.

Constitutional Tribunal standoff

In late October, judges elected by the Sejm entered the Constitutional Tribunal building. Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, the longest-serving judge at the tribunal, announced that she was suspending its president, Bogdan Święczkowski, and vice-president, Bartłomiej Sochański, citing violations by Święczkowski. Police units were deployed in front of the building, officially to guarantee the safety of the judges, and protests continued outside. Nawrocki returned from a trip to Senegal and went to the tribunal overnight. In the following days he criticised the actions taken there, and he made his point at a session of the National Security Council:

“The rule of law cannot be restored by methods that themselves flagrantly violate the law.”