EU leaders lambast Poland over its challenge to union

FILE PHOTO: Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki delivers a speech during a debate on Poland's challenge to the supremacy of EU laws at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France October 19, 2021. Ronald Wittek/Pool via REUTERS

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -European leaders lined up to chastise Warsaw on Thursday for challenging the EU's legal foundations, but Poland's premier said he would not bow to "blackmail" as he joined a summit of the bloc's 27 nations.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said he was ready to resolve disputes with Brussels, though many are worried that a stubborn ideological rift between eastern and western Europe poses an existential threat to the EU itself.