Poland’s nationalist government is trying to beat a retreat on some of the conflicts that have soured its relations with the European Commission and with neighboring countries.

Last week, Warsaw struck a deal with Prague to end a long-running — and increasingly expensive — dispute over an open-pit coal mine near the Czech border. Polish President Andrzej Duda also proposed a law that would dismantle the disciplinary chamber of the Supreme Court. The chamber is a key issue in the rule of law dispute between Poland and the EU because it’s seen as a way of punishing judges who don’t fall in line with political demands.

Both of those steps were prompted by the increasing cost of fighting the European Commission and the Court of Justice of the EU — something that’s causing growing political and economic problems for the government at a time when it’s slipping in opinion polls and fighting off a growing phone-hacking scandal.

But as Duda is in Brussels this Monday, to meet Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Council chief Charles Michel, it’s unclear whether tactical retreats will be enough to extinguish the conflicts.

The Polish leader said his bill was aimed at ending the standoff with the EU; the Court of Justice levied a daily fine of €1 million on Poland for refusing to freeze the work of the newly created disciplinary chamber until the bloc’s top court rules whether it’s in line with EU law. The Polish government has refused to comply.

“The proposed regulation … is aimed at giving the Polish government the tools to end the conflict with the European Commission and unblocking the National Recovery Fund,” Duda said, referring to the €36 billion in grants and loans for the EU pandemic relief program that Brussels isn’t paying to Warsaw.

The government desperately needs that money at a time when inflation is rising steeply and parliamentary elections are set for 2023; it’s already blanketed the country with billboards trumpeting the river of cash heading Poland’s way.

Political clinch

But Duda’s idea immediately came under fire from United Poland, the right-wing junior member with the larger Law and Justice party of the ruling United Right coalition.

“At first glance, it doesn’t seem that this proposal resolves anything,” said Marcin Warchoł, a deputy justice minister and an MP with United Poland, adding: “It would be a very bad thing if the president’s policy was seen as a political white flag.”

Warchoł said Duda’s bill “won’t satisfy the EU” because it doesn’t go far enough in meeting Brussels’ demands.

His voice matters because the governing coalition formally has 227 seats in the Sejm, the 460-member lower chamber of parliament, relying on a smattering of independent MPs to hang on to its majority. United Poland has 19 MPs, meaning without their votes, Duda’s bill has no chance of passing. Duda is a former member of Law and Justice and is backed by that party.

“Without their support, this bill can’t get through the Sejm, and the opposition may not be interested in supporting this ‘watered-down’ legislation,” said Jakub Jaraczewski, a research coordinator at Democracy Reporting International, a nongovernmental organization.

He said that while Duda’s bill would eliminate the disciplinary chamber and no longer penalize Polish judges for sending questions to EU courts, it doesn’t resolve other legal disputes with the EU such as the new Council for the Judiciary, the body that appoints judges, which has come under fire from European courts for undermining judicial independence.

“The draft is a signal of a bit of a retreat, but not enough to de-escalate the rule of law crisis,” Jaraczewski said.

That’s also the case with Poland’s retreat in its scrap with the Czech Republic over the Turów brown coal mine, located next to the Czech border. Prague said Warsaw improperly extended the mine’s operating permit and was not doing enough to prevent pollution and falling water levels on the Czech side of the border.

Initially, Poland refused Czech efforts to come to an amicable solution, prompting Prague to file a lawsuit at the Court of Justice. The EU court ordered the mine to halt work, which Poland refused to do, and as a result, was hit with a €500,000-a-day fine. With costs rising, the Polish government last week traveled to Prague and agreed to pay €45 million in compensation and carry out the pollution prevention measures that were the Czechs’ original demand.

Poland also faces a bill of more than €68 million from the Court of Justice of the EU, something it has so far refused to pay and which could be deducted from EU payments to Poland.

“Those fines are illegal and we won’t pay them,” said Michał Woś, a deputy justice minister and an MP with United Poland.

That’s not likely to put the European Commission in a conciliatory mood.