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Central Europe
July 28, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 12
“It is time to restore the independence of the Constitutional Tribunal and to either withdraw the laws reforming the judiciary or bring them in line with the Polish constitution and with European standards on judicial independence,” Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans said.
In an early reaction, the Polish government ap-
Brussels presses Visegrad states on migrant quotas
bne IntelliNews
The European Commission stepped up its action against the refusal of the Czech Republic, Hun- gary and Poland to engage in the EU’s migrant quotas scheme on July 26.
The Visegrad Four, which also includes Slovakia, is seeking to resist the scheme, which was passed by EU states in 2015 in a bid to help redistribute 160,000 refugees from Italy and Greece. Driven by populist governments looking to stoke up support domestically, the Central European region looks set to remain in a tricky and slow moving conflict with Brussels - which has grown more confident after seeing off populist challenges in the Nether- lands and France - for some time.
The final commission meeting before the summer break saw the EU executive seek to slap down a marker in the growing confrontation with Visegrad political leaders. The same day as the commission announced it will move on to the next step of
the infringement procedures against the three states, Poland was also handed a harsh warning that it will face the Article 7 “nuclear option” should it seek to continue with a controversial judicial reform. Earlier, employing strong words,
peared unfazed. “We are not going to agree to blackmail from EU officials,” spokesman Rafal Bochenek told PAP.
“Organisation of the judiciary is a member state’s competence. The commission’s doubts are groundless,” deputy Foreign Minister Konrad Szymanski said, according to PAP.
Syrian refugees at Hungary's border with Austria at the height of the migrant crisis in 2015.
an advisor to the EU’s top court said a Slovak and Hungarian legal challenge to the migrant quotas scheme should be dismissed.
The commission launched the infringement procedures against the trio in June. Slovakia was reportedly spared after taking in one more than the bare minimum of 15 refugees over the previ- ous 12 months.
“The replies provided [by the three to the launch of procedures] have not been found satisfac- tory as none were accompanied by an indication that these Member States would start relocating swiftly to their territory,” the EU executive’s July 26 statement reads.
The commission thus announced it is moving to the next step in the process. Reasoned opinions have been sent to the three countries for non- compliance with their legal obligations on reloca- tion. The Visegrad states have just one month to respond, instead of the customary two, due to the fact that the quotas were an emergency response and the “repeated calls to the three Member States”.