Polish ruling party head slams EU’s Fit for 55 plans, says only richest states benefit

The EU’s Fit for 55 Agenda only benefits the richest member states and is imposed by a European Parliament led by a “Green communism” agenda, ruling party leader Jarosław Kaczyński said in a letter quoted at a rally by Infrastructure Minister Andrzej Adamczyk on Sunday.

The Fit 55 package has drawn criticism from the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party since it was first presented. The main concern is that the EU would dictate the pace of the green transition and that highly coal-dependent member states would find it difficult to follow.

Fit for 55 means imposing on Europeans a new lifestyle, which only the wealthiest countries and citizens, and innovative business sectors, would benefit from, “at the cost of the poorer (citizens and businesses), mostly from our part of Europe,” said Kaczyński, as quoted by Wirtualna Polska.

In his letter read by Adamczyk at the rally organised by pro-government Gazeta Polska, Kaczyński pointed to the “Green communism” agenda that guides the “leftist and liberal majority”.

The party leader also warned against the uncontrolled increases in petrol prices and rising accommodation costs in Poland.

In Europe, the result of the EU’s ambitious climate policy would be undermining the standard of living of an average European and the EU economy losing its competitiveness.

Mechanisms such as the Social Climate Fund, meant to mitigate the consequences of green transition, are constructed so that, in practice, the potential beneficiaries will have to pay the costs of their functioning, he added.

The Fit for 55 packages is a set of proposals that aim to revise EU legislation to ensure the EU’s target of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 is achieved.

While former prime minister Beata Szydło called Fit for 55 “a risky experiment” and MEP Zbigniew Kuźmiuk lamented its “ironfisted requirements,” Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki (also PiS) withdrew his initial veto when the European Council voted when to achieve climate neutrality.

(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | EURACTIV.pl)