Brussels, 11/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 13 January, at the guideline debate of the college of commissioners on the situation in Poland and recent reforms regarding the public media and the Constitutional Court (see EUROPE 11464), the European Commission is to decide whether to launch the first stage of the so-called “rule of law” mechanism, which was created in 2014.
On Monday, Commission spokespersons declined to confirm the information published the day before by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung to the effect that the decision to trigger this procedure had already been made, more specifically at the meeting of the heads of cabinet of the Commissioners, on Friday 8 January.
This “rule of law” mechanism is made up of three stages, the first of which consists of analysing the information and assessing various tendencies in a member state which are likely to affect compliance with the fundamental values of the Union. The Commission has never before used it.
Between 2011 and 2012, Hungary was called to order over a number of laws on the media and the justice system. At the time, however, only the so-called Article 7 procedure was in place. This procedure was described as a nuclear bomb, as it consisted of suddenly moving towards sanctions which could go as far as suspending voting rights of the Council of the EU.
The creation of the rule of law mechanism was therefore devised by the Commission as a kind of lighter version. Even so, if Poland should receive recommendations in the near future which it ultimately decides not to set in place, the Commission will still be able to use the article 7 procedure. Theoretically, this is supposed to be used only in the event of serious and repeated violations committed by a member state against the European fundamental principles. On Wednesday, it will be on the basis of a note by the First Vice-President of the Commission, Frans Timmermans, that the Commissioners will discuss the situation in Poland and decide whether there are grounds to launch the first stage of the rule of law mechanism.
The Commission has sent two letters to Warsaw, one on the reform of the public media and the other on the reform of the constitutional court. In particular, it has concerns about changes made within the Audiovisual Council, as directors of public media are now directly appointed by the government. As regards the constitutional court, the Commission called on Warsaw not to adopt a law which could infringe the independence of this institution. The law has since been adopted, bringing in a two-thirds qualified majority rule for verdicts of the court, and a quorum of 13 out of 15 judges in order to be able to rule on cases of great importance, rather than nine previously. The court has also lost its freedom to choose the cases it wishes to deal with as a priority, with the order henceforth to be determined chronologically, depending on the dates on which they were brought before the court.
The Polish authorities have written to the Commission to explain over the public media (see EUROPE 11464) and they have also written to the Venice Committee, a body of the Council of Europe. It is partly on the basis of the opinion of this committee, which is expected in March, that the Commission will be able to conclude whether or not Poland has systematically infringed the fundamental principles of the Union. (Original versioin in French by Solenn Paulic)