Brussels, 18/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 18 May, the Commission discussed the human rights situation in Poland following the dialogue launched on 13 January of this year with the Polish authorities regarding several reforms deemed at the time by the Commission to be problematic.
By request of Frans Timmermans, the First Vice-President of the Commission with responsibility for the dossier, the College of Commissioners more specifically discussed a draft opinion which could be adopted on 23 May “at the latest”, the Commission writes, unless Warsaw has submitted the necessary clarifications before then. This embryonic opinion is still part of the first stage of the 'Rule of Law' mechanism, which consists of 'structured dialogue' with the Polish authorities, the second stage taking the form of a recommendation.
Readers may recall that the Commission expressed doubts over the reforms implemented by the PiS government concerning the Constitutional Court, which it felt was prevented from carrying out the constitutional controls. The European Commission's current concerns relate to the following points, it explains in a press release: - the appointment of the judges of the Constitutional Court and the execution of the judgements of the Constitutional Court of 3 and 9 December 2015 on these issues; - the law of 22 December 2015 modifying the law on the Constitutional Court, the judgement of the Constitutional Court of 9 March 2016 regarding this law and compliance with the judgements returned by the Constitutional Court since 9 March 2016; - the effectiveness of constitutional controls of the new laws adopted and promulgated in 2016.
According to European source, recent contact between Timmermans and the Polish government has been constructive. “There is some movement, there are meetings of the cabinets”, this source explained. In the meantime, the Commission on Wednesday asked Warsaw for progress to be made on these various fronts by 23 May, on pain of being the subject of an opinion. If the Commission adopts this opinion, the Polish authorities will have two weeks to respond.
On 11 March, the Venice Commission issued an opinion in which it stated that the modifications of 22 December of last year were incompatible with the requirements of the rule of law (see EUROPE 11510). The Commission said that the recent reforms of the Polish Constitutional Court “would undermine democracy, human rights and the rule of law” by “paralysing the effectiveness” of the Court. It stressed that the measures in question were just as much the responsibility of the current majority in the Polish parliament (Sejm) as of the previous one. Vice-President Timmermans then discussed the situation with the College of Commissioners on 6 April (see EUROPE 11526). (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)