EU reactions to Poland’s media law: “No freedom without free media”

Despite the government crisis, a controversial media law has been passed in Poland. It prohibits non-European companies from taking a majority stake in broadcasters. The outrage in Brussels is great.

In Poland, companies that have their headquarters outside the European Economic Area should not be allowed to hold a majority stake in radio and television broadcasters in the future. The change in the law targets a government-critical TV station that belongs to the US media giant Discovery.

The law is not only creating resistance in Poland itself. There is also strong criticism from the USA and Brussels. “There can be no freedom without free media,” said the President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli. And Commission Vice-President Vera Jourova also sees the new Polish law as a blow to the independence of Polish television, as she announced on Twitter:

Media pluralism and diversity of opinion are what strong democracies welcome and not oppose. The draft Polish Broadcasting Act sends a negative signal. We need an EU-wide commitment to freedom of the press to protect media freedom and the rule of law.

MEPs are calling for financial sanctions

Warsaw wants full control over everything that is written and broadcast, said EU parliamentarian Daniel Freund from the Greens. Like him, a majority of MPs is now calling for the Polish government to cut EU funds because it is permanently violating European values. Freund sees this as the only effective response.

The law is “another concrete attack” on an independent station critical of the government, says Freund. “All of this shows that the PiS party, the government in Poland, wants full control over everything that is written, broadcast and broadcast.” The EU Commission urgently needs to increase the pressure on the government in Warsaw. “We have seen in the past that money is the only lever that works, so there must be financial sanctions and fines here.”

For Poland, billions in grants are at stake

Many MEPs are calling for the rule of law mechanism that has been in force since January to be finally applied to Poland. In addition, as it is doing in the case of Hungary, the EU Commission could temporarily withhold the payment of the funds from the Corona reconstruction fund in order to persuade Warsaw to give in. For Poland, almost 24 billion euros in non-repayable grants and 12 billion euros in loans are at stake.

Actually, nobody is interested in the situation escalating further, said EU parliamentarian Lena Dupont. The domestic policy spokeswoman for the CDU / CSU group in the EPP parliamentary group hopes that the last word has not yet been spoken on the new Polish media law:

At the same time, the Commission is also called upon to fulfill its role as guardian of the Treaties and, in particular, to maintain an intensive dialogue with Poland on the rule of law – with a sharper tone and, of course, with a keener eye on developments around the disciplinary chamber.

Warsaw wants to give in to judicial reform

The disciplinary body is an essential element of the Polish judicial reforms and is designed to relocate or dismiss judges and prosecutors who are politically inconvenient. The European Court of Justice ruled in mid-July that the disciplinary body violated EU law. And the EU Commission then set Poland a deadline of next Monday to implement the decision.

Warsaw now signaled that it wanted to give in. The EU Commission will check very carefully that this is not just a cosmetic correction.