In the week that EU leaders agreed on a sixth round of sanctions against Russia, Polish Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Pawel Jablonski speaks to FRANCE 24 about the effect he hopes the measures will have on the Russian economy, his disappointment at the Hungarian government's stance regarding sanctions and the latest developments in Poland's rule of law dispute with the European Commission.
Hungary receives all its Russian oil by pipeline and insists that cutting off this supply would ruin the Hungarian economy. Asked about Hungary's exemption from the oil embargo, Jablonski says: "Right now we believe that Hungarian policy is detrimental to the security of Europe. We will continue our work to do everything at our disposal to change this flawed policy. This is a continuous process and obviously this applies also to other countries which are continuing their deals with Russia, in the gas market for example."
Meanwhile, on the Polish government's moves to address concerns about the rule of law, which saw the European Commission withhold billions of euros of EU Recovery Fund money, the under-secretary of state admits that his government has "made mistakes" in its reforms but says it is committed to the independence of the judiciary.
"The judiciary is still very ineffective and it requires improvement. We are continuing this. There were some mistakes made and we are trying to do our best to improve it […] There are of course the principles of impartiality and independence, but we should never confuse independence with lack of accountability, and there has to be an effective system in place," he told FRANCE 24.
On the specific issue of so-called LGBT-free zones declared by several Polish municipalities, Jablonski maintains that "every person is protected in Poland in the same way – there is absolutely no discrimination including for reasons of sexual orientation and identity at all and if anyone feels discriminated there is legal recourse and the Polish government always supports that".
When asked whether he supports these "zones", Jablonski declined to condemn them, insisting that "these resolutions have no legal effect, they are not acts of law, and if anyone feels that this resolution should be revoked there is a legal recourse to that effect. This is an independent court decision".
