Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (L), Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz (R), and Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu attend a press conference in Bucharest, Romania, on Sept. 11, 2018. Visiting Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz on Tuesday accused some European officials of using "double standards" in their statements. (Xinhua/Cristian Cristel)
Visiting Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz on Tuesday accused some European officials of using "double standards" in their statements.
"We believe that sometimes double standards are used, and so something that is accepted in some countries or may not be so when happening in Romania, Hungary or Poland," Czaputowicz told a joint press conference with his Romanian counterpart Teodor Melescanu at the end of a Romania-Poland-Turkey trilateral meeting.
According to him, Poland has a right to reaffirm its judiciary in line with European standards, and the rule of law or other provisions implemented in Poland are those existing in Western European countries.
The official said that there is no breach of the rule of law or instances in his country in which the values of the European Union (EU) are not respected.
"We disagree with such statements," he said, stressing that "They do not reflect reality."
Czaputowicz stated himself against what he called the attempt to punish some countries on the grounds of non-observance of the rule of law, classifying the "accusations" as "a political tool used by some leaders."
"We will be against the attempts to combine the rule of law with this attempt to punish a region or certain countries," he said, asking rhetorically how one can assess whether the rule of law has been respected when there are actually no objective evaluation mechanisms.
"We believe that the accusation of our countries is a political tool used by some (European) leaders," he stressed again, firmly pointing out that "we will be against the punishment of Hungary or Romania for using this mechanism because it is not justified."
The European project is in "mortal danger" because a number of nations want to destroy it, budget Commissioner Gunther Oettinger claimed a week ago in Brussels, picking out four countries within the EU, namely Poland, Hungary, Romania and Italy, want to "weaken or even destroy" it.
In response, the Romanian foreign minister wrote on his social media page last Wednesday that the statements "are promoting discourse lines which contradict the constructive attitude of a European Commissioner" and "they don't have a coverage based on reality."
