The apparent disintegration of the EU continues, as to be predicated.
Poland has not voted to leave but the storm clouds are gathering on the
horizon. It is now under threat of
having its voting rights within the EU taken away, under Article 7 of
the Lisbon Treaty, because its parliament has passed a domestic law
which will effectively make opposition demonstrations illegal, if it is
applied in the way its critics fear. The proposed new law of assembly,
which the President has yet to sign, will give local authorities the
power to allocate certain spaces for demonstrations by certain groups,
allowing them to effectively book those spaces for months or years in
advance. At present, if more than one group wants to hold a rally in the
same space the group which applied first is given priority. Under the
new law, demonstrations of “national importance”, however that is
defined, will automatically be given priority, irrespective of when the
organisers applied to hold them. Any other assembly in the same place,
or within 100 metres of it, would be illegal.
