Andrew Tettenborn

The EU is heading for a bruising showdown with eastern Europe

Eurocrats don’t naturally do compromise, but Brussels may have to learn to compromise quite fast if it is to have any hope of avoiding a bruising showdown with eastern Europe. As often happens the backdrop is formed by events in Poland, where the ruling PiS party under Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki faces a crucial election in October.

Apart from a rather esoteric ongoing argument about the rule of law which it is fair to say even most Europe-watchers don’t understand, Warsaw currently has two big gripes against the central EU bodies. One is their increasing insistence on centralising immigration control, and in particular the relocation of irregular arrivals; the other, what Poland sees as a lack of EU sympathy for its farmers facing being undercut by a flood of cheap Ukrainian grain. Both have come to a head in the last few days.

On immigration, the ruling PiS party has added to the election ballot-paper for October four referendum questions, including this explosive one: ‘Do you support accepting thousands of illegal immigrants from the Middle East and Africa, according to the forced relocation mechanism imposed by European bureaucracy?’ This is a fairly skilful piece of blindsiding which, in inviting a mandate to act in flat breach of an unpopular EU law, puts Brussels in a bind. The

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