Poland may face sanctions if it cannot show it has retracted controversial legal changes

Poland could be put in the dock by the EU within weeks over its failure to protect the independence of the country’s judiciary if its rightwing government fails to convince Brussels that it has backtracked on its most controversial legal changes.



A meeting of ministers from the 28 member states on Monday was told by Frans Timmermans, the vice-president of the European commission, that the Polish government’s policies remained a threat to the rule of law.

Q&A Why does the Polish government want to appoint judges? Show Hide The attempt by Poland's Law and Justice party to take control of the judicial system should be seen as part of a wider campaign to dismantle democratic checks and balances on the government’s actions, from its takeover of state media to its capture of the country’s constitutional tribunal.

Jarosław Kaczyński, PiS’s leader, has developed a theory known in Poland as ‘impossibilism’, the idea that no serious reform of Polish society and institutions is possible due to these checks and balances, and what he describes as the vested interests of liberal elites and foreigners intent on exploiting the country.

The commission is demanding that Poland remove the discretionary power of its president, Andrzej Duda, to prolong the mandate of supreme court judges, and abandon the extraordinary appeal procedure, which includes a power to reopen final judgments made years earlier.

Despite signs of an improvement in relations between Brussels and Warsaw in recent months, Timmermans told reporters that he was not willing for the dialogue between the commission and Warsaw to be strung out.

A meeting of the same EU ministers next month, in the general affairs council, could establish a hearing at which the commission lays down its case against Poland, and Warsaw would seek to defend itself, Timmermans said.

That could in time lead to a vote by member states on potential “preventative measures” under the EU’s unused punishment clause, known as article 7, although the commission would not yet be confident of the support of the qualified majority of member states required.

Timmermans, a former Dutch foreign minister, said: “Some progress has been made over the last couple of weeks, but not enough to say that the systemic threat to the rule of law would be removed, so we still need to continue the dialogue.

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“But dialogue is not a goal in itself. Dialogue needs to lead to tangible and robust results. I have also informed the council that this dialogue cannot continue indefinitely, we have to come to some solution at some point.



“I hope together with the Polish government we can use the next couple of weeks to further find solutions ... You cannot continue endlessly with the dialogue. We shall have to draw a conclusion and that conclusion will be drawn pretty soon.”

In a sign that Poland may be unwilling to go further in assuaging commission concerns, after tweaking a number of its reforms, its minister in the meeting Konrad Szymański, however, told reporters: “Poland has made progress, today we expect progress from the European commission”.

Timmermans responded that he was not engaging in “horse-trading”. He had earlier warned that the the “full spectrum” of outcomes would be on the table on 26 June when EU ministers meet.

He said: “It could be the commission and Poland make so much progress that we say that there is no longer a systemic threat to the rule of law. It could also be on the other side of the spectrum that we do not advance at all any more and we have to ask the council to engage in the follow-up phase of article 7, which will to be to organise a hearing where the commission and Poland will be able to present their cases.

“The main issue remains how much political control can you have to be able to say that the judiciary is independent,” Timmermans added.