US and EU express concern over Poland’s new Russian influence commission

The US government and European Commission have both expressed concern over the creation in Poland of a new commission to investigate Russian influence, which is empowered to ban individuals from public office for up to ten years.

Yesterday, President Andrzej Duda signed into law the legislation to create the commission. At the same time – acknowledging concerns from legal experts, many of whom say it violates the constitution – Duda referred it to the constitutional court for assessment. However, it will come into force in the meantime.

In a statement issued later the same day, the US State Department announced that “the US government is concerned by the passage of the new legislation, which could be misused to interfere with Poland’s free and fair elections”.

Parliamentary elections are due to be held this autumn, at which the ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party is standing for an unprecedented third term in office. The opposition claim that the new Russian influence commission will be used to attack them during the campaign.

The State Department said that it “shares the concerns expressed by many” that the commission “could be used to block the candidacy of opposition politicians without due process”.

It “calls on the government of Poland to ensure this law does not preempt voters’ ability to vote for candidate [sic] of their choice and that it not be invoked or abused in ways that could affect the perceived legitimacy of elections”.

The US is Poland’s most important ally, a relationship that has become even more significant in the wake of Russia’s invasion of neighbouring Ukraine. In the past, US opposition has played a part in Poland backing down from laws on foreign media ownership and historical memory.

This morning, the EU’s justice commissioner, Didier Reynders, also expressed concern over Poland’s new Russian influence commission. Speaking to journalists ahead of a European Council meeting to discuss the rule-of-law situation in Hungary and Poland, he said that “there are many concerns in both cases”.

“We have special concern about the situation in Poland with the creation by law of a special committee able to deprive citizens of their rights to be elected to a public office,” said Reynders. “It will be possible to do that through an administrative decision without any judicial review.”

“The [European] Commission will analyse the legislation but we will not hesitate to take measures if it is needed because it is impossible to agree to such a system without access to justice, to an independent judge,” he added.

Many critics of the law have said that the Russian influence commission – whose members will be appointed by the Sejm, the lower house of parliament, where the government has a majority – can unilaterally issue decisions to ban individuals from office without the involvement of courts.

They say that this will make the commission a politically controlled and unaccountable extra-judicial body that can be used to undermine the opposition ahead of the elections and to hinder its ability to govern if it comes to power.

However, when announcing yesterday that he would sign the bill, Duda argued that the commission’s decisions can be subject to judicial review. That point was also made by government spokesman Piotr Müller in an interview with broadcaster TVN24 yesterday.

Main image credit: KPRM (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.