Brussels, 06/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 6 April, European Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans announced after reporting back to the college of commissioners on his trip to Warsaw (see EUROPE 11525) that the dialogue would continue with the Polish authorities as part of the rule of law mechanism. The functioning of Poland's constitutional court remains paralysed, however.
Timmermans said he was “encouraged” by the bilateral meetings he had in Poland. He was especially encouraged that the representatives of Beata Szydlo's government committed to starting a dialogue with the European Commission and Polish opposition parties on how to exit this constitutional and political crisis. He nevertheless again stressed that the “starting point” for this dialogue must be the publication and application of all rulings from the constitutional court, so as to respect the “constitutional framework” in force in Poland.
The Law and Justice (PiS) party in power still does not intend to do this, as Poland's Minister for Justice Zbigniew Ziobro again underlined in a letter to the head of the constitutional court on Wednesday - although the court was trying to resume its work. In his letter, Ziobro (who had met Timmermans the previous day) threatens to take judicial measures against the judges if they continue not to respect the reform on the way their constitutional court functions. On 9 March, the judges deemed this reform to be largely anti-constitutional. The publication of their judgment has been blocked by Szydlo - which is currently the main point of friction in Poland, as well as between the Polish government and the European Commission, and the Council of Europe.
“I want to stress again the urgency of the matter. The last thing we need is to let this fester and then have two parallel legal systems in a member state”, Timmermans said in Brussels on Wednesday. “I want to continue this dialogue” that the Polish authorities seem to want too, he continued. However, in Timmermans's opinion, “what we don't see today” is “what would be the starting point of this dialogue”. It is therefore now up to the Polish authorities “to decide to have a starting point of the dialogue with the publication and implementation of the constitutional court decisions because that would mean that it would be in full conformity with the constitution to then start talking about reforming or changing the constitution, which any state can do”. “The PiS had a huge electoral result but by implementing their programme they are well advised to stay within the constitutional order”, he concluded. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)