FRANKFURT: European Union laws offer protection to the Polish central bank governor if the incoming government planned to unlawfully prosecute or suspend him, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said in a letter on Monday.

“The Statute of the ESCB and the ECB, in order to guarantee the independence of the governors of the national central banks, offers protection in case the Sejm was to subsequently adopt a resolution to prosecute you,” Lagarde told Adam Glapinski in a letter.

Lagarde said that such a prosecution could come with an automatic suspension of Glapinski as both the chief of the central bank and a member of the ECB’s General Council and may thus be illegal.

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“You could refer such resolution to the Court of Justice of the European Union and ask for the assessment of its lawfulness,” Lagarde said.