Brussels, 24/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 24 May, the First Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, travelled to Warsaw to meet the Prime Minister, Beata Szydlo, but also in order to prevent the Commission from having to adopt an opinion on the rule of law situation in Poland. It appears likely that he will have succeeded, as Szydlo reported “constructive” discussions with her counterpart.
With the Commission having announced on 18 May that it would adopt this opinion on 23 May unless Warsaw responded to various of its concerns, the institution has now decided to adjourn this 'ultimatum' and is not currently planning to adopt its opinion. The Commission explained that recent dialogue with Warsaw had been constructive and that it was therefore not necessarily relevant to adopt a rule of law opinion at this moment in time. The Vice-President will briefly report back on his visit to Poland at the College of Commissioners on Wednesday 25 May, but no decision is expected to be made, as the President of the Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, is currently in Japan for the G7 Summit.
The Commission and Warsaw are in talks over a number of reforms deemed by the European institution to be problematic, specifically the reform of the Constitutional Court, the appointment of judges to the Constitutional Court and the execution of the judgements of the Constitutional Court of 3 and 9 December 2015 regarding these issues, the Commission explained on 18 May. The Commission is still looking for explanations regarding 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 and compliance with the judgements returned by the Constitutional Court since 9 March 2016 as well as the effectiveness of the constitutional controls on new laws adopted and promulgated in 2016.
A Commission team travelled ahead to Warsaw on Monday 23 May to carry out these talks (see EUROPE 11556). (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)