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“It is with a heavy heart that we have activated Article 7. But the facts leave us with no choice. We have no other option. This is not just about Poland, it is about the EU as a whole,” Timmermans said.
The commission issued another recommendation on December 20, asking Poland to backtrack on the judiciary reforms. That is most likely going to fail to elicit a response other than a snub.
PiS has consistently maintained that reforms are necessary to clamp down on the alleged corporatism of the judiciary and to make the branch serve people better.
The triggering of the Article 7 is an
early test for Poland’s new Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki who was picked by PiS allegedly in an attempt to improve Poland’s standing in the EU. That appeared to have had little impact on Timmermans who said on December 20 that he saw no difference between Morawiecki and his predecessor Beata Szydlo in how they approached the issue
of the rule of law, Polish radio RMF FM reported ahead of Timmermans’ presser.
The commission seems unlikely to go through the entire Article 7 procedure, which ends with suspension of voting rights. For that to happen, member states
The contested bill is one of the main laws with which PiS is reforming the judiciary. It also was one of two bills Polish President Andrzej Duda vetoed in July, pushing the government to rework them. Despite warnings that the recently passed new versions of the reform bills
“The “nuclear option” might lead to stripping Poland of its voting rights in the EU”
must be unanimous. Poland’s ally Hungary has said it would stand by Poland. Some other states have hinted at opposing the ultimate sanction against Poland as well.
In a separate, but related, move, the
EC also decided to take Poland to the Court of Justice of the EU for one of the laws reforming the judiciary, the bill on the organisation of common courts. The commission alleges that the bill is discriminatory on the basis of gender due to the introduction of a different retirement age for female judges and male judges.
do not address Duda’s concerns from July, the president is widely expected to sign off on them.
In response to the commission, Poland’s foreign ministry said it regretted the EU executive’s initiating Article 7, which
is “political”. In a barrage of responses on Twitter, PiS officials blamed the Polish opposition, Germany, and the EU for triggering of the procedure in retaliation for Poland's refusing to take part in the migrant relocation scheme or for demanding war reparations
from Germany.
Poland's PiS puts centrist face forward as Morawiecki shakes up cabinet
bne IntelliNews
Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party carried out a major reshuffle of the government on January 9, replacing most controversial ministers with more moderate appointees.
The reshuffle appears to be an attempt by PiS to move the government to a more centrist position ahead of three successive elections in the coming years. Getting rid of some of the most unpopular and contentious ministers
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could bolster the ruling party ahead of an important local election due in the autumn. The local election will be followed by general and presidential votes in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
The shake-up came hours before Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s trip to Brussels where he met the president
of the European Commission Jean- Claude Juncker. Morawiecki will have hoped to ease tension with the EU over
PiS policies that some of the dismissed ministers pursued. That said, the position of Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro who oversee the main point of contention with Brussels – the reform of the judiciary – was never in doubt.
The scope of the changes hints that Morawiecki has been allowed a lot of manoeuvring room by PiS’ chairman and de facto decision maker, Jaroslaw Kaczynski.