The European Union’s justice commissioner, Didier Reynders, has warned that “decisive action” may be taken against Poland given the government’s failure to address problems regarding the rule of law. In response, an MEP from the Polish ruling party accused the EU of having a “colonial” attitude.
“The rule-of-law situation in Poland and Hungary is not improving,” Reynders told the European Parliament’s committee on civil liberties, justice and home affairs, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP)
The commissioner noted that the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) had recently found that the disciplinary chamber for judges created by Poland’s government does not provide safeguards against political influence. He assured that the commission will check whether Poland “fully implements” the CJEU’s rulings.
Last month, the Polish government informed the commission of how it intends to comply with the rulings. Reynders said yesterday that the commission is still analysing the response, but “we will act decisively if necessary, because we are, after all, the guardian of the treaties”.
The commissioner noted that, despite being ordered to suspend its work by the CJEU, Poland’s disciplinary chamber has “continued activity”. He also “reiterated that European law takes precedence over national law” – a position the Polish government is seeking to challenge.
Responding to Reynders’s remarks, Patryk Jaki, an MEP from Poland’s ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, accused EU institutions of applying “colonisation criteria” to eastern member states.
Jaki repeated the Polish government’s argument that the judicial reforms it has introduced – such as giving politicians greater influence over the selection of judges – are “exactly the same” as procedures that already exist in some western member states.
“Yet, Commissioner, you are attacking only Poland,” said Jaki. “[You think] countries from eastern Europe cannot be treated in the same way as countries from western Europe. In this way, you divide Europe, you destroy European solidarity.”
The government’s critics, however, say that, even if some individual policies are similar to western ones, the pace, scale and manner of implementation of the Polish government’s judicial overhaul – parts of which have been found to violate Polish and European law – undermine democracy and the rule of law.
Earlier this week, the European Commission’s vice president, Věra Jourová, visited Poland and held talks with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. She told Wirtualna Polska that she had informed the Polish government it “must respect” the CJEU’s rulings.
“We are concerned that the disciplinary chamber is still operating to some extent, even though it should suspend its activities,” she added, and called for “more details” from Warsaw about how it plans to address the situation.
Jourová also expressed “surprise” at the Polish justice minister’s claim last week that the EU is engaged in a “hybrid war” against Poland through its opposition to Warsaw’s judicial policies. “This is a strange comparison to make…[when] Russia has started a real hybrid war with Europe,” she said.
Main image credit: Raul Mee/EU2017EE (under CC BY 2.0)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
