His remarks come during a week which has seen Mr Verhofstadt heap criticism on the regime of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban after political opponents staged widespread demonstrations against controversial new laws, while President Andrzej Duda signed into law amendments to legal reforms in the face of pressure from EU officials including commission vice-president Mr Timmermans. An estimated 10,000 protestors waving placards proclaiming “all we want for Xmas is democracy” took to the streets once over the weekend to voice their opposition to controversial legislation which they have branded “slave laws”, with police eventually using tear gas in a bid to break up the demonstrations. On Saturday, Hungarian Priome Minister Viktor Orban’s party Fidesz blamed “criminals” for the “street riots” and accused Hungarian-born US billionaire George Soros of stirring things up.
Mr Soros is a strong critic of Mr Orban but denies claims against him of being behind the protests as lies.
Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski, MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham, believes the EU has no business being involved in the internal politics of member states.
He said: “Interference from unaccountable Brussels elites like Timmermans and Verhofstadt is on the increase.
“The EU is wading more and more into internal domestic affairs of sovereign nations.
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“This march was by 10,000 people which is relatively small. A demonstration against government by millions as we have seen in parts of Europe at different historic moments who be a real indicator that something going seriously wrong.”
Mr Kawczynski also drew a contrast between Brussels’ attitude to demonstrations in Hungary and those held in Germany and France in recent months.
He said: “These marches are a normal part of functioning democracy, as they are in France and Germany over recent months and yet EU does not interfere there as they know they will get short thrift from Paris and Berlin.
“Warsaw and Budapest will continue to diverge from EU in part because of this unhealthy undemocratic interference in their domestic affairs.”
In the country of his birth, Mr Duda, an ally of the governing Law and Justice (PiS) party signed amendments which will allow some Supreme Court judges to stay in their posts after having originally been forced into early retirement.
His move brought Polish rules into line with an injunction by the EU’s top court, the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which is part of a broader EU investigation into political changes in Warsaw that Brussels says undermine democratic checks and balances required of EU member states.
The consequent EU investigation, launched under Article 7 of the bloc’s treaty, could in theory lead to Poland losing voting rights in the bloc, though in practice any concrete penalty is unlikely as that would require unanimity among EU governments.
Hungary, itself under an Article 7 investigation, has repeatedly said it would not back any sanctions against Poland.
Warsaw’s U-turn on its Supreme Court reform is unlikely to resolve the crisis in its relations with Brussels, critics say.
Other disputed reforms the PiS has introduced since coming into power in 2015, including creeping state control of public media, remain in place, however, and party leaders have questioned whether European treaties give the ECJ the right to intervene in Polish affairs.
Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro said after the ECJ decision last month that PiS’s revamp of the judiciary remained legitimate.
He said: “We will continue to eradicate pathologies with fire,” referring to judges who once served under Communist rule and under the PiS’s centre-left predecessor.
Mr Timmermans said: “The question of the Supreme Court and retirement age of judges is only one problem and we should closely watch all the others that fall within the scope of Article 7.”