On Tuesday 13 September, during a second debate in the dialogue with the Polish authorities on respect for the rule of law, the main political groups at the European Parliament gave their approval for the European Commission's action as part of this dialogue.
Janusz Lewandowski (EPP, Poland) explained that "this is not a debate on Poland but on the abuses of the power in place". In his view, the democratic mandate obtained at the end of 2015 by the "Law and Justice" Party (PiS) does not authorise the blocking of the Constitutional Court or the control of the public media through its own propaganda.
In support of the Commission approach, Gianni Pittella (S&D, Italy) noted the trend observed in certain EU countries to "recalibrate fundamental liberties and create an ‘illiberal’ democracy". He exclaimed to the Polish government that it should calm down and "not take an entire country hostage with your fears! What do you have to hide from the press?"
First Vice President of the Commission Frans Timmermans said that in relation to the "dispute" pitting the Commission against the Polish authority, “I must conclude that at this stage the dispute concerning the composition and the respect of the Constitutional Tribunal remains unresolved”.
At the end of July, the Commission sent Poland a formal recommendation triggering the second phase of the European mechanism for respecting the rule of law in member states (see EUROPE 11612). The grounds of its criticism focused on three main areas: three judges appointed by the legislator during the previous mandate have still not taken up their roles; the publication of the Constitutional Court's rulings is not automatic; the activities of the Court should not be hindered by legislative reforms.
Timmermans also referred to a court ruling made on 11 August on the anti-constitutional character of the legislative reform sought by the Polish government. The politicians in power refuse to recognise this ruling, which was strongly criticised by the Polish judge at the European Court of Justice (see EUROPE 11606).
Speaking on behalf of the ECR Group, to which members of the PiS Party belong, Ryszard Antoni Legutko (ECR, Poland) denounced the "theatre of the absurd" and the rather undemocratic Union, which was going through numerous crises. According to the latter, the Commission is in violation of the treaties with this procedure on the rule of law, which he compared to "verbiage". "We have never had as much media plurality as there is today", he said, adding that this plurality was much better than that observed in France, Germany or in Belgium.
Sophie in’t Veldt (ALDE, Netherlands) criticised the fact that nothing was done for the Polish people and said that this question went to the very heart of what the Union was about, which explained the importance of the European Parliament's ongoing work on the development of a follow-up mechanism that would help evaluate all countries in an effort to avoid any singling out. Barbara Spinelli (GUE/NGL, Italy) pointed out that these kinds of debate had taken place in Hungary and Italy.
On Wednesday, MEPs will adopt a specific resolution on the situation in Poland. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)