WHAT’S THE STORY?

LAST week, Poland's Constitutional Tribunal ruled that some provisions of the European Union treaties and some EU court rulings go against Poland’s highest law, setting the country on a collision course with the EU.

Euronews reported: “In a majority decision, the judges said the country's EU membership did not give EU courts supreme legal authority and did not mean that Poland had shifted its sovereignty to the EU. They said no state authority in Poland would consent to an outside limitation of its powers.”

The supremacy of EU law over national law is a necessary condition of membership of the Union, except when so-called "opt-outs" are negotiated and agreed between individual member states and the EU.

The tribunal ruling has given rise to the possibility of Poland leaving the EU, something which has quickly been dubbed Polexit following the UK’s lead.

The Law and Justice (PiS) party says it has no plans to leave the EU, but Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki welcomed the ruling and said each member state must be treated with respect and the EU should not be only “a grouping of those who are equal and more equal’’.

He has since tweeted: "Polexit is fake news. A harmful myth, with which the opposition is trying to hide its lack of any ideas for a fitting European position for Poland."

Many of the country’s 38 million people don’t think it’s fake at all.

SO NOT LIKE BREXIT THEN?

Absolutely not like Brexit in which one of the nations of the UK dictated to the others that we would be leaving the EU, very much against the will of the Scottish people. At least Brexit was achieved via a referendum, whereas Polexit may happen with no such vote.

Interestingly, numerous opinion polls over the last two years show that a considerable majority of Poles wish to stay in the EU, with support for remaining registering at 80% and more.

Sunday’s mass demonstrations – up to 100,000 people took to the streets in Warsaw alone – show the strength of feeling against Polexit.

Donald Tusk, a former head of the European Council and now leader of the main opposition party Civic Platform, said the PiS party’s policies were jeopardising Poland’s future in Europe.

WHAT’S IT REALLY ALL ABOUT?

Ever since Poland entered the EU on May 1, 2004, it has had a love hate relationship with the Union, relations often being coloured by the political makeup of the Polish Government. Right now the right-wing PiS party is in power as the dominant party in the ruling conservative coalition. PiS is populist in nature and is against any further European integration while Poland is also the lowest ranked country in the EU for LGBT rights – president Andrzej Duda has said LGBT “is an ideology worse than Communism.”

This crisis was ultimately caused by the PiS coalition stacking the judiciary with lawyers allied to their various causes. In response, the European Commission has called on the European Court of Justice to impose fines on Warsaw in a dispute over the rule of law.

Donald Tusk said: “We know why they (PiS) want to leave - so that they can violate democratic rules with impunity.”

WHAT HAS BEEN THE EU’S REACTION?

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday that she was "deeply concerned" and has instructed her executive to analyse the court ruling "thoroughly and swiftly" to decide what steps to take.

She added: "Our utmost priority is to ensure that the rights of Polish citizens are protected and that Polish citizens enjoy the benefits granted by membership of the European Union, just like all citizens of our Union.

"Moreover, EU citizens, as well as companies doing business in Poland, need the legal certainty that EU rules, including rulings of the European Court of Justice, are fully applied in Poland.”

This morning the European Commission's industry chief, Thierry Breton, said he did not believe "for one second" that Polexit would happen.

WHAT DOES POLAND STAND TO LOSE?

The European Parliament’s main parties have called on the EC to freeze payments to Poland – the largest recipient of EU funds.

The first huge effect of Polexit would be the loss of 58 billion Euros which the European Commission is withholding from Poland’s post-pandemic National Recovery Plan.

As the fifth most populous state in the EU, Poland has become hugely reliant on freedom of movement and the internal market. Like the UK, it would lose both – perhaps they should look at what Brexit is doing to people here.

HOW WILL IT END?

It can go any of three ways. Either Poland does leave the EU or is kicked out, or the Polish Government backs down completely, or some kind of fudged resolution is reached that allows Poland to stay in the EU but perhaps not follow all the EU rules – exactly as the UK did with its four opt-outs, the largest number of any state in the EU.