Polish justice minister bets PM a bottle of plum brandy in dispute over EU funds

Poland’s justice minister has argued that the prime minister is wrong about the content of an agreement with the European Union to unlock billions of euros in funding – and has called for whoever is proven wrong to buy the other a bottle of plum brandy.

Zbigniew Ziobro – who as well as being justice minister is head of United Poland (Solidarna Polska), a junior partner in the ruling coalition – says that some of the “milestones” agreed with the European Commission were not approved by the cabinet.

This, he claims, includes some labour market reforms, changes to parliamentary procedures, and the introduction of a tax on emissions-related vehicles.

But the prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, has dismissed those claims, saying that all the indicators, targets and milestones were accepted on 30 April 2021 by the entire cabinet. “Everyone who familiarised themselves with the document at that time knows very well what is in it,” said Morawiecki, quoted by the Wprost weekly.

Ziobro, however, remains certain that this is not the case, and decided to wager a bottle of plum brandy – known as śliwowica in Polish – on it.

“If it turns out that the prime minister does indeed point to the place where the government agreed to tax diesel or petrol cars driving in Poland, then I am prepared to put up this śliwowica and apologise for the mistake of not being able to see something,” said Ziobro during a press conference on Tuesday.

“If it turns out that the prime minister is not right, I am ready to drink together to his mistakes – but this time not my own [bottle] – and discuss what to do about it next,” he said.

United Poland has often taken a harder line than its partners in government over relations with the EU. In particular, it has been reluctant to compromise on the judicial policies overseen by Ziobro since 2015.

Although the party previously expressed opposition to the European Commission’s demand that Poland’s disciplinary chamber for judges be abolished in order to unfreeze EU funds, United Poland’s MPs this month voted in favour of doing so.

However, last week the party made clear that it does not agree with some of the other milestones agreed by the Polish government with Brussels. Ziobro said that his party “does not feel obligated to implement them”.

Main photo credit: Tomasz Wiech/Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.