Today in Brussels, during a meeting of the European Parliament’s Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO), a structured dialogue took place with Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for technological sovereignty, security, and democracy. Piotr Müller, a PiS MEP, spoke during the discussion.
Addressing the Finnish politician, Piotr Müller stated that her remarks regarding the European Commission’s oversight of electoral processes are “disturbing.”
“The European Commission—based on no EU treaties whatsoever—has no right to oversee electoral processes in independent, sovereign states. This usurpation of authority in this area is very concerning,” he emphasized.
Even more alarming, in the opinion of the PiS MEP, is that the alleged studies cited could be used in a highly subjective manner to attempt to invalidate entire electoral processes—as was recently the case in Romania.
In this context, the politician referred to the so-called “roundtable” on monitoring the electoral process in Poland. “Such actions on the part of the European Commission are unauthorized. If anyone were to take such actions, it should only be entities that have the authority to do so. The European Commission has no treaty basis for this kind of activity,” Müller argued.
The politician also demanded answers to questions he had previously directed to the EC but to which he had not received a response. He wanted to know how and on what basis the individuals and entities participating in follow-up activities after the “roundtable” were selected, and he demanded that the list of entities and the full names of the individuals participating in these meetings be made public. He also called for the publication of all notes from these meetings, including any actions taken regarding online platforms—especially the sending of questions and demands.
“Without such transparency, there can be no question of trust,” said the PiS politician.
The Executive Vice-President of the European Commission ignored the PiS politician’s questions. Virkkunen merely stated that “electoral processes are, of course, a national competence, not harmonized at the European level,” and that it was the Polish authorities who decided to invite the European Commission and online platforms to the discussion.
