Poland: the Return to Europe
On June 8th and 9th the HSE Faculty of Law welcomed Michal Sewerynski, professor at the Institute of Lodz, Poland.
M. Sewerynski is the Chairman of the International Society for Labour and Social Law. Between 2006 and 2007 he was the Polish Minister of Science and Education. M. Sewerynski is a member of a number of international and regional scientific societies, the author of 12 books and over 140 articles published by leading international publishing houses and academic journals. He is guest professor at a number of universities in France, Canada, Switzerland, Spain and Japan and has been awarded state honours by Poland, France and The Vatican.
On June 8th Professor Sewerynski spoke at the session of the Faculty of Law Academic Council on ‘Legal and Political Aspects of Polish Integration in the EU'. The presentation covered the problems of European integration and the EU international legal status, the position of EU member countries on the delineation of competencies between pan-European and interstate law-making institutions, constitutional basis for Polish accession to the EU, key direction of new member countries on entering the economic and currency unions of the EU, the prospects of the EU existence and development considering the latest economic and political problems in Europe.
Professor Sewerynski stated that integration in the EU was a crucial step for Poland from both a political and economic point of view and also a symbol of the return of Poland to the Western Latin civilization which it helped create.
At the same time, the integration process brings with it certain problems. Firstly, there are systematic and constitutional problems, including the issues of seperation of power between the EU and the member countries - the issues of countries'sovereignty and the limits of EU intervention in the decision making process. A related problem is the discussion on whether the EU should be considered as a community of sovereign countries (this is the prevailing opinion at the moment) or whether its model is a federation. One more problem is strengthening the EU's control over budget and financial policies of the countries (taking into account the situation in Greece). These problems also include the introduction in the EU Council of a decision making procedure using the double majority method, meaning highly populated countries will have more influence, a situation which certainly won't be accepted by countries with a small population.
Secondly, there are the problems of integration of EU legal standards into Polish state law:the legal status in Poland of the decisions of the European Court of Justice and the signing of the Protocol on the application of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights to Poland and to the United Kingdom as an appendix to the Lisbon Agreement ratification documents, and other similar issues.
Thirdly, there are axiological issues:moral values as an important element of the EU's fundamental stability and the decrease of Christian influence in the public sphere along with the increase of influence of secular and even anti-Christian cultures. For example, there is the discussion of the necessity of mentioning Christianity in the EU Constitution, the European Parliament's resolution in support of abortions and homosexual unions, the financing of scientific research using human embryo cells etc.
Summarizing, M. Sewerynski stated that the problems mentioned above lead to certain disagreements on EU policies and their implementation, particularly when it concerns discrepancies between national interests and EU interests. These disagreements are determined by historical, cultural and economic differences between the member countries as well as by their current political interests. But despite these disagreements, the idea of European integration, based on common goals and interests of European states, remains attractive. Today there is a confidence in the continuing existence of the EU and its constructive role not only in European politics, but on the world stage too.
The extended session of the Academic Council involved the participation of the administration of the Faculty of Law, the departmental heads and Kantemir Gusov, Chairman of the Russian branch of the International Society for Labour and Social Law, and Member of the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences. The report was followed by discussion on Polish-EU relations, the prospects for future Russian-Polish relations and the opportunities for collaboration between universities and scientific societies in Russia and Poland.
The following day, June 9th, as part of an initiative by the Department of Labour Law, M. Sewerynski delivered a lecture entitled ‘Polish Labour Law Reform in the Contemporary Environment'. He spoke about changes in the labour law as part of European integration and the global economic crisis and paid attention to the topical issues of social partner relations, the role of trade unions in solving the most important political and legal problems. Professor Sewerynski also told the audience about the most interesting areas of work of the Commission for the codification of the Polish labour law, a process he is closely involved with..
The lecture was of interest for students as well as teachers of the HSE and other large Moscow universities. After the lecture the participants asked the speaker a number of questions regarding European integration, labour law aspects of legislative reforms, specifics of legislature development during the transition to a market economy and the political and legal problems of Eastern European countries'membership in the EU.
Viktor Androshchuk, specially for the HSE News Service