The future of Poland is in the EU

The EU should support Polish citizens but not ignore their rogue government. The European Union and the Polish people belong together, yet the Polish government has increasingly grown distant from European values in the past years. This distance is built on its supports to cities and regions which declared their territory as LGBT ideology-free zones, on enforcing near-total abortion ban, refusing the EU gender equality plan, Green Deal and ruling European laws as unconstitutional, while significantly destroying independance of Polish judical system, placing the Country outside of the typical division of powers between a legislature, an executive, and a judiciary. It is worth mentioning that the so-called Constitutional Court with its current members is constitutionally questioned by the majority, if not all, constitutional experts in Poland. 

But while the PiS, the ruling party in Poland, has strong anti-European values and rhetoric, this is not the case for the Polish people. On the contrary, opinion polls in Poland keep showing very strong support for EU membership, with percentages varying between 75% and 90%. Only a few days ago, Pro-European demonstrations were held all over Poland, gathering hundreds of thousands people across the country.

Volt Europa strives for a better integration of Poland into a common Europe. Polish people are EU-citizens. The future of Poland is in the EU. Although one thing is sure, to stay part of the EU, the Polish government cannot blatantly ignore European and Polish values and laws. We as Volt, in Poland, Malta, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Greece, Austria, Finland, Romania, Ireland, Portugal, Luxembourg, Germany, Sweden , Czechia and Italia, are standing up for all Polish and European citizens. We are calling for the government to respect the Poles and adhere to our shared European values. 

As Europeans, we stand firm. The ruling of the Polish Constitutional Court declaring some European Union laws to clash with Poland’s Constitution, consequently making a co-existence between Poland and the EU unlikely, is highly controversial amongst its citizens. We cannot stand by and watch a Member State taken out of the EU due to the populist narrative, lack of democracy, decreasing media freedom and less and less  independent judiciary. We cannot let the Polish government lead the European citizens of Poland out of the EU and watch idle as we see a potential new Brexit while violating citizens’ rights with impunity.

European funds should benefit all Europeans and we cannot accept that funding distributed by the EU will come to support anti-democratic values. 

We need greater transparency and accountability to ensure that the money coming from the EU benefits all citizens of Poland and will not serve to diminish journalists power or discriminate against people.  If not, the consequences are known and funds will be blocked until we can be certain that EU funds will be distributed respecting the rule of law. 

As Volt, we are advocating for bypassing the Polish Government and transferring Recovery Funds directly to their recipients, the citizens of Poland.

This money belongs to them and under no circumstances shall serve a government violating the rule of law.

We will not be silent until civil society has a voice and an audience, in Poland as well as across Europe.

Signatories: 

Reinier van Lanschot, Co-President of Volt Europa

Francesca Romana D’Antuono, Co-President of Volt Europa

Mikolaj Buszman, President of Volt Polska
Arnas Lasys, Co-President of Volt Malta
Kathrine Richter, Co-President of Volt Danmark

Olivia ten Horn, Co-President of Volt Belgium

Stefan Razvan Florea, Co-President of Volt Romania

Nikolaos Tataris, Member of Volt Greece

Fabiola Conti, Co-President of Volt France

Alessandro Del Gener, President of Volt Ireland

Tiago de Matos Gomes, President of Volt Portugal

Paul Loeper, Co-President of Volt Deutschland

Victoria Bringmann, President of Volt Österreich

Felix A. Epp, Member of Volt Suomi

Daniel Silva, Co-President of Volt Luxembourg

Danilo Lo Pumo, Co-President of Volt Switzerland

Friederike Schier, Co-President of Volt Deutschland

Adam Hanka, Co-President of Volt Czechia

Michael Holz, Co-President of Volt Sweden

Andi Shehu, Co-President of Volt Italia

Jason Halbgewachs, board member of Volt Nederland

Emmy Mol, board member of Volt The Neherlands