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| European Council President Donald Tusk arrives at a European People’s Party (EPP) meeting ahead of a EU summit in Brussels |
Poland’s prime minister will go head to head with her 27 European Union peers in Brussels on Thursday in a row over the reappointment of the Polish chairman of their summits that has left the other member states bemused.
The clash, rooted in bitter rivalry between Donald Tusk, the chairman of the European Council, and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of Poland’s right-wing ruling party, is casting a shadow over efforts to forge a new unity in the EU as Britain prepares to quit.
Diplomats confidently predict a second term for Tusk, a former premier of Poland who was appointed Council chairman in 2014 before his own centrist Civic Platform party was ousted by the eurosceptic Law and Justice party of his nemesis Kaczynski.
Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo’s tactic on Thursday will be to pressure the other EU leaders to delay their decision, thereby possibly opening the way for an alternative candidate.
“We will do everything to ensure that the reappointment does not take place today,” said Poland’s Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski.
Tusk enjoys wide backing, as demonstrated by comments from Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte: “The Netherlands supports the candidacy of Donald Tusk… He is always fair as chairman with his eye on the ball. In very turbulent times he has kept a cool head.”
But Poland’s intransigence means the reappointment could require hours of haggling. If Poland secures a delay, the top job will definitely not go to another Pole, diplomats said.
With British Prime Minister Theresa May attending her last such summit before she formally launches the two-year Brexit process later this month, the remaining 27 EU leaders have bigger problems to worry about than the Council chair.
They will meet again on Friday, but minus May, to prepare for a “unity” summit to be held in Rome on March 25, the 60th anniversary of the treaty that laid the EU’s foundation.
The row with Poland, the bloc’s biggest ex-communist state, has highlighted a deepening split between eastern members reluctant to cede national freedoms to Brussels and the richer western states that want to deepen EU integration in the hope it can boost prosperity and security and thus stem the rise of Brexit-inspired eurosceptics.
Talk of a “two-speed Europe” has intensified in recent months. Germany’s Angela Merkel and other leaders say allowing states willing to pull closer together is crucial to the EU’s survival, but wary easterners fear they could be left behind.
In theory, Poland’s case against Tusk is doomed as leaders can simply reappoint him with an overwhelming majority vote.
But Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, whose turn it is to chair proceedings, may try to forge some kind of consensus at the table. Tusk will leave the room as his fate is decided.
Kaczynski holds Tusk “morally responsible” for the death of his twin brother. Tusk was prime minister in 2010 when Lech Kaczynski, the then-Polish president, was killed in an air crash in Russia. Inquiries in both countries blamed pilot error.
In a letter to fellow leaders, Szydlo said Warsaw wants Tusk out because he has criticised government policies back home.
Tusk is concerned that Kaczynski is undermining Polish democracy, a view shared by others in the EU, but Szydlo framed her objections to his reappointment in terms of protecting sovereign national powers from Brussels.
The talks on Thursday afternoon should see agreement on pressing ahead with new free trade pacts despite “protectionist tendencies” elsewhere – a reference to European concerns about new US President Donald Trump.
Over dinner, leaders are due to pledge continued support – and possible EU and Nato membership – to western Balkan states where they are worried about what they see as the anti-EU influence of Russia.
The leaders will also review plans to curb illegal migration from Libya to Italy amid concerns that arrival figures are already higher this year than in 2016.
