EU launches legal action against Poland over Russian influence commission

The European Commission has opened infringement proceedings against Poland in response to the creation of a new commission to investigate Russian influence that has the power to ban individuals from public office.

Brussels believes that the Russian influence commission violates four areas of European law relating to democracy, legal certainty, the right to judicial protection and data protection. It has given the Polish government 21 days – much less than usual for infringement proceedings – to respond to its concerns.

A deputy leader of Poland’s ruling party has, however, dismissed the action as an “absurd and baseless attack” by the EU with the aim of “interfering in Poland’s internal affairs”.

The legislation creating the Polish commission was signed into law by President Andrzej Duda last week. It was immediately criticised by the United States and European Commission, who say it could be used to undermine the opposition ahead of this autumn’s parliamentary elections.

In response to such concerns, Duda proposed changes to the commission’s powers and composition. But his ideas have not yet been considered by parliament and the legislation initially signed into law by him remains in force.

Announcing the opening of infringement proceedings against Poland today, the European Commission said it “considers that the new law unduly interferes with the democratic process”.

It notes that the Russian influence committee’s activities “risk creating grave reputational damage for candidates in elections and, by finding that a person acted under Russian influence, could limit the effectiveness of the political rights of persons elected in democratic elections”.

Moreover, the law’s “very broad and unspecified definition of ‘Russian influence'” allows it to ban people from public office for activities that were legal at the time they were undertaken. “The law thereby violates the principles of legality and of non-retroactivity,” argues the European Commission.

Brussels also notes that decisions made by the Russian influence commission can only be challenged in administrative courts, which “cannot review the correctness of the assessment of facts and the weighing of evidence” by the commission.

Finally, it believes that the new Polish law does not provide a proper legal basis for processing or safeguarding data, which makes it incompatible with the EU’s data protection rules.

Although the European Commission normally gives national governments two months to respond to the opening of infringement proceedings, in this case it has only given Warsaw 21 days.

The commission’s vice president, Věra Jourová, admitted that this deadline is “unique” because “we are working under a sense of urgency because we believe that this law is really a very serious blow to democratic processes and to the fairness of the [autumn] elections”.

“Elections are approaching in Poland, it is very important that they are fair and honest,” European Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders told broadcaster TVN24 today. “That’s why I reacted immediately to the new law…This case must go to court quickly.”

The Polish goverment has not yet made any public response to the European Commission’s opening of proceedings today, which is a public holiday in Poland marking the Feast of Corpus Christi.

However, yesterday, after the European Commission announced that it would be taking action, its decision was condemned by Beata Szydło, a former prime minister and now MEP for and deputy leader of the ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party.

“This is baseless interference in Poland’s internal affairs,” tweeted Szydło. “The European Commission is showing that it does not care about the truth – it simply uses every opportunity to attack Poland…supporting the absurd claims of the opposition.”

PiS argues that the Russian influence commission is a necessary tool to investigate whether and how the Kremlin has impacted on decisions made by officials in the past, and then to take action to undo those decisions and hold those officials to account.

The ruling party has regularly claimed that the government it replaced – which was led by Donald Tusk and his Civic Platform (PO) party, now the main opposition – was too friendly towards Moscow, and often acted in Russia’s interests rather than Poland’s.

The Polish government has also argued that other EU countries, such as Germany and France, as well as the European Parliament itself have also set up commissions to investigate foreign influence. However, experts note that those bodies do not have the wideranging powers of the Polish commission.

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.