German chancellor says EU fears over Polish reforms giving justice minister right to fire judges must be taken seriously

Angela Merkel has weighed in on a worsening dispute between the EU and Poland about judicial independence, delivering pointed criticism of Germany’s eastern neighbour that underscores its growing isolation.



The European commission said in July that it would launch legal action against Poland over reforms that gave the justice minister the right to fire judges – a power that undermines the independence of the courts and violates EU rules.

On Tuesday, one day after the Polish government dismissed the EU inquiry as groundless, the German chancellor said she took the commission’s worries very seriously.

“This is a serious issue because the requirements for cooperation within the European Union are the principles of the rule of law,” Merkel told a press conference in Berlin. “However much I want to have very good relations with Poland ... we cannot simply hold our tongues and not say anything for the sake of peace and quiet.”

Warsaw was given one month to respond to a July report from Brussels that said the reforms endangered the rule of law. On Monday, the final day of the deadline, Poland’s foreign ministry published its response, brushing away the commission’s criticism.



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“The ongoing legislative measures, whose overriding aim is to reform the judicial system, are in line with European standards and respond to many years of growing social expectations in this regard, and so they groundlessly raise the commission’s doubts,” the ministry said in a statement.

The European commission said it would carefully study the 12-page letter from the Polish government before giving a detailed response. But a spokeswoman said there was a case to answer: “The commission believes that there is such a threat to the rule of law in Poland.”

On a visit to Bulgaria last week, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said Polish citizens “deserved better” than a government at odds with the EU’s democratic values and economic reform plans. Hitting back in unusually personal terms, the Polish prime minister, Beata Szydło, accused Macron of arrogance resulting from a lack of political experience.



EU ministers are expected to discuss the Polish rule of law procedure in September, when the commission will be looking for backing from member states. Frans Timmermans, the European commission vice-president, has said the commission stands ready to launch a formal warning using the article 7 procedure. Article 7 is the EU’s never-before-used “nuclear option” that could lead to suspension of a country’s voting rights.

Poland’s nationalist government enjoys strong support from the like-minded Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, but other countries in the region have distanced themselves.

Slovakia and the Czech Republic took a neutral position when the Polish rule of law stance was discussed among European ministers last May. Earlier this month, Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico stressed that his country needed to be “close to the [EU] core, close to France, close to Germany” in remarks that set him apart from his hardline neighbours.

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Suspending Poland’s voting rights in the EU council of ministers could only happen with support from a weighted majority of member states. First, there would need to be a recommendation from the European commission or the European parliament or one-third of member states.

The president of the European commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, will discuss the issue during a working lunch with Merkel on Wednesday.

Poland said it hoped its “exhaustive clarifications” would end any doubts about the judicial changes.

In late July, the Polish president, Andrzej Duda, signed a bill into law that will allow the justice minister to name the heads of all lower courts. Against a backdrop of street protests, he vetoed two other bills that would have allowed the government to replace supreme court judges and a high-level judicial panel.

The commission published its rule of law recommendation the next day, citing four bills: the two vetoed bills, the lower courts law and a fourth act, which came into force in July and allows assistant judges a bigger role in the Polish courts system. These assistant judges cannot guarantee judicial independence, according to the commission assessment – a view shared by the European court of human rights.