The European Parliament calls for the deployment of an independent election observation mission for the upcoming Polish parliamentary elections in autumn 2023. A resolution to this effect was adopted in plenary today (472 in favor, 136 against, 16 abstentions). The demand is justified, among other things, by the recently proposed amendments to the electoral law by the ruling PiS party. These may pose a threat to the conduct of free and fair elections. The European Parliament also complains about the inadequate reforms of the Polish judiciary and calls on the European Commission not to release any of the frozen EU funds to Poland until rule of law standards are fully implemented again.

Daniel Freund, for the Greens in the European Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee, comments:

“A few months before the election in Poland, the PiS government’s attacks on democracy continue to increase. The European Commission is doing too little to counter these attacks. There are serious fears that the election will not be free and fair. It is shocking that we have to worry about the state of democracy in one of the largest EU Member States. There is no way around election observers.”

The text of the resolution can be found at the following link:

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/B-9-2023-0319_EN.html