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PiS remained in the ECR; it has the position of co-chair and co-treasurer, it will have a new secretary general

by AI | 05.Jul 2024 | Europe in brief AI

On Wednesday, PiS announced that in this term the EP will remain in the ECR.

Former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. Photo: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP/dpa

Despite rumors, PiS has not left the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group in the European Parliament. “I have taken the position of co-treasurer,” said PiS MEP Kosma Złotowski to PAP. Joachim Brudziński was appointed co-chairman of the group on Wednesday, and a Pole will also become the secretary-general.

The final decision regarding the constitution of the group and the election of its leadership was made on Wednesday in Sicily, where an off-site meeting of the group is being held from Monday to Thursday. This is exactly one week later than originally planned – the first formal ECR meeting was supposed to take place in the European Parliament in Brussels on the morning of June 26, but it was boycotted by the Polish delegation. Although PiS MEPs were supposed to attend the meeting, political friction between them and the Italians – the Brothers of Italy led by Premier Giorgia Meloni are currently the largest delegation in the group, with Poles being the second; the talks could not be conducted. They were finally postponed to an off-site meeting in Sicily.

The corridors of Brussels were buzzing with rumors that PiS plans to “orphan” Meloni because she does not agree to the expansion of the faction, including MEPs from Fidesz, the party of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Moreover, the admission of Hungarians was also opposed by ECR Romanians from the radical right-wing AUR party (Alliance for the Unity of Romanians). Similarly – Orban did not see himself sitting with the anti-Hungarian formation from Romania. The topic of Fidesz joining the ECR naturally died on Sunday when Orban, along with former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis and Austrian Freedom Party leader Herbert Kickl, announced the formation of a new political alliance called Patriots for Europe.

Rumors quickly emerged that PiS might join the new group. Especially since just last week, in an interview with Politico, former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that he estimated PiS’s chances of remaining in the ECR as “50-50”; furthermore, Morawiecki was present in Brussels when PiS was negotiating with the Italians in the European Parliament.

The speculations ended on Wednesday, as PiS announced that it would remain in the ECR in this term of the European Parliament.