Poland’s prime minister warned on Thursday that a plan to tie access to funds from Brussels with respect so called “rule of law” clauses could lead to the EU breaking up.
After holding talks with his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban in Budapest, Poland’s Mateusz Morawiecki said the planned new mechanism was arbitrary, would lead to “fragmentation of the EU” and that it could even lead to the “disintegration of the EU”. Poland has warned it could veto the bloc’s 2021-2027 budget if the mechanism is introduced. Most Poles are against the idea of linking access to EU funds to “rule of law” clauses, a recent survey has found.

Six letters by Polish Romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz have enriched the collection of the National Library in Warsaw.

They were purchased at a foreign auction thanks to funds from Krystyna Piórkowska, a New York-based Polish philanthropist and collector of memorabilia relating to Polish history and culture. The letters date from 1837. The National Library collection includes a manuscript of Mickiewicz’s poem Ode to Youth and numerous first editions of his works. The publication of Mickiewicz’s Ballady i romanse in 1822 is regarded as the onset of Romanticism in Polish literature.

More than 1,200 Polish professors and other academics have signed a letter appealing for “truth and respect” for the late Polish-born Pope John Paul II.

The letter states that the Polish-born pontiff is being “accused of covering up cases of paedophilia among Catholic clergy, and there are calls for removing his public memorials. These actions aim to change the image of a person worthy of highest respect into someone jointly guilty of offensive crimes”. The letter added that John Paul II played a “great role in the process of the liberation of the nations of Central and Eastern Europe from the rule of the Soviet Union”, and that he was the “spiritual leader of Poles in the Solidarity and martial law period”.

And finally, a member of one of the tug boat crews that operate out of Gdańsk’s Westerplatte wharf has died after falling into the water on Wednesday.

The incident took place in the late evening as the crew member was boarding one of the vessels. The victim was taken out of the water quickly, resuscitated and transferred to hospital, but later succumbed to his injuries. The circumstances surrounding the tragic accident are being investigated by the District Prosecutor’s Office in Gdańsk..

Weather

Today will have sunny intervals and a gentle breeze with temperatures reaching 7 degrees centigrade (45 degrees Fahrenheit) during the day, dropping to 3 degrees overnight. Saturday looks like being a drizzly and grey day with temperatures reaching 6 degrees centigrade during the day, and 3 degrees overnight. 

Martin Caren/ako