Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki was in Strasbourg yesterday for a debate in the European Parliament on the rule of law in Poland. During his speech and in a letter posted on Monday, Morawiecki accused the bloc of overstepping its authority and vowed his government would not give in to financial and political “blackmail” over its judicial reforms.

The debate was held in response to a landmark judgment by Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal, which ruled earlier this month that parts of EU treaties were incompatible with the Polish constitution.

Speaking during the debate, Morawiecki emphasized that “EU competencies have clear boundaries, we must not remain silent when those boundaries are breached…we are saying yes to European universalism, but we say no to European centralism.”

Prior to Morawiecki’s speech, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated she was “deeply concerned” by Poland’s “challenge to the unity of the European legal order.” and warned that the EU “will not allow our values to be put at risk.”

According to von der Leyen, the EU Commission is considering three options in response to the Polish court’s attack on the primacy of EU law: infringements, which could result in a direct challenge to the Polish court judgment and the imposition of fines, a conditionality mechanism for access to EU funding, which could result in Poland losing access to billions of euro in EU recovery funds, and the application of Article 7 of the EU’s treaties, which could strip Poland of its rights as an EU member state.

Source: Radio Poland, Reuters

Poland’s Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau recently paid tribute to former US State Secretary Colin Powell, who passed away earlier this week from complications due to COVID-19.

In a Twitter post on Monday, Rau praised the former four-star general and diplomat as “a true statesman…Polish people will never forget his role in deepening Polish-American relations at the beginning of our membership in NATO.”

A child of immigrants who worked his way through the military to become a four-star general, Powell was the first Black man to serve as Secretary of State, the highest diplomatic office in the US.

The 84-year-old Powell had been suffering from multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells, and Parkinson’s disease, which may have made him more susceptible to the effects of COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated.

Source: Radio Poland, PAP, BBC.com

In a career first, Polish tennis player Hubert Hurkacz has climbed two notches to become No 10 in the latest ATP rankings, following a successful tournament performance last week.

The 24-year-old Pole, coached by American Craig Boynton, reached the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament last week at Indian Wells, California.

Hurkacz last month won his fourth ATP singles title by beating Spain’s Pablo Carreno-Busta in the final of the Moselle Open tennis tournament in the French city of Metz. Earlier in the year, “Hubi” won the men’s singles at the Miami Open, a major US tournament sometimes referred to as “the fifth Grand Slam.”

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic remains No. 1 in the ATP rankings, followed by Russia’s Daniil Medvedev and Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Source: Radio Poland, PAP

The 18th International Chopin Piano Competition wraps up tonight with the remaining finalists set to perform in Warsaw.

Each finalist will be performing one of Chopin’s two piano concertos, the E-minor Concerto, Op. 11, or F-minor Concerto, Op. 21, accompanied by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra.

The remaining four finalists, Aimi Kobayashi of Japan, Jakub Kuszlik of Poland, Hyuk Lee of South Korea, and Bruce (Xiaoyu) Liu of Canada will begin their finals performance at 6 pm Warsaw time tonight. The winners will then be announced this evening via the Chopin Competition mobile app, online via the Chopin2020.pl website, and on the official YouTube channel of the Chopin Institute.

Source: chopin2020.pl

Weather

Today will be mostly cloudy and cool, with a slight chance of rain in the early afternoon and a strong breeze coming in from the southwest. Temperatures will peak around a high of 17°C, or 63°F, dropping to an overnight low of 13°C or 56°F. Similar cloudy weather is expected for tomorrow, with a good chance for rain showers midday.

EPeck/mk