Last week, Poland again resorted to veto, its traditional way of dealing with the EU. This time, Warsaw vetoed the proposal of the European Commission and European Parliament to mark October 10 as an EU day against death penalty.
"We do not consider ourselves supporters of the herd instinct," explained Wladyslaw Stasiak, minister of Interior and Administration, and voted against the proposal. He said a general right to life day would be more appropriate.
President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso expressed his regret that Poland rejected the proposal. He is the former prime minister of Portugal, a country which abolished capital punishment as far back as in 1846. Barroso pointed out that European values rest on human dignity, and that he was surprised by this reaction on behalf of a democratic state with an experience of anti-totalitarian struggle.
Until recently, it seemed that there was no discord on such a principled issue as capital punishment in Europe, which has traditionally given priority to human rights. For example, the Council of Europe insisted for many years that Moscow should ratify the sixth protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights, which it has signed. The Europeans do not want to settle for the current interim version of the moratorium (death penalty has not been applied for 11 years now). Nobody wants to listen to the justifiable arguments of Russian policymakers about lack of public support for the abolition of the death sentence.
In Poland, the situation is approximately the same - about 70% of the population want death penalty back (it has not been carried out since 1988). The opinion of the president and prime minister is nothing new for their compatriots, whereas the EU and human rights champions were shocked by last year's proposal of Lech Kaczynski to lift the moratorium not only in Poland but in the rest of Europe. Brussels immediately notified the head of state that the abolition of death penalty was compulsory for membership in the EU and the Council of Europe.
But statements, even when made by the president, cannot compare with veto in the EU. Until now the Kaczynskis did not dare interfere openly in pan-European policy on such a sensitive issue (as distinct from many others - from the veto on the singing of a new Russia-EU strategic agreement to de facto blackmail during the discussion of the draft European basic treaty).
Incidentally, in upholding the right of the state to kill, the tandem is not very consistent - on the one hand, they support the death penalty, but on the other, as zealous Catholics, they are opposing it on a par with abortion and euthanasia, which are both qualified as murder by the Catholic Church. There is no logic to the Polish approach.
For the umpteenth time now, Poland's special position has changed the EU plans. The institution of the Day against the Death Penalty could help interior and justice ministers from 26 countries who gathered in Brussels to consolidate their positions in international talks. But they had to give in under the pressure of their Polish colleague. The resolution, initially proposed by Italy and which the Europeans planned to voice at the UN General Assembly, had to be abandoned. Fortunately, the situation may be resolved soon if Jaroslaw Kaczynski loses in the parliamentary elections on October 21 and if his successor is more pliable with Brussels.
The elections themselves have become another stumbling block in Poland-EU relations. Warsaw declared all of a sudden that it does not want to see OSCE observers at the elections. This is unheard of in the EU history. The Polish Foreign Ministry gave two arguments to justify this position. First, nobody has invited the OSCE - it volunteered to go to Poland for the elections; second, observers have other things to do - why not go and watch the forthcoming parliamentary elections in Switzerland?
Do Polish policymakers believe that Swiss elections create more grounds for concern or do they want to rid observers of extra burden? Most probably, the Polish government is not being entirely honest.
The reason is different. The OSCE was going to send not an assessment mission (they work in advanced democracies) but observers (who monitor elections in more "difficult" regions, mostly the CIS). The Poles must have taken offense that they were put on the same level with Belarus and Kazakhstan.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
