In the evening of Thursday 27 October, the Polish authorities responded to the formal recommendations that were made to them by the 27 July European summit under the rule of law mechanism, thus responding within the deadline (see EUROPE 11656).
A European Commission source says that the Commission has been sent an 11-page letter in Polish and will now read it carefully and discuss it at a meeting of the College of Commissioners once the commissioner in charge of the question, Frans Timmermans, says he is able to form an opinion about the response.
Another close source says the letter’s main messages are that the Polish authorities feel the Commission’s recommendations are unfounded and unreliable because they do not take into account the special nature of the constitutional court in Poland. The source says the authorities say the recommendations cannot be implemented because they are not compatible with Polish law and the Polish constitution. The Polish authorities also criticise the Commission for interfering, saying that any member state is free to decide how its institutions function. The source goes on to say that the Polish government nevertheless hopes to have constructive dialogue with the Commission.
Warsaw was due to respond to recommendations on how the constitutional court functions, which the Commission said in July constitutes a systemic risk to the rule of law in the country. In theory, the next step in the mechanism, if the Commission is unhappy with the answers sent in by the Polish government, is to launch proceedings under Article 7, which can lead to a country’s votes being suspended at the Council.
Suspension is recommended by the European Parliament's ALDE Group in a press release on 28 October. Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of the ALDE Group, says the PiS government in Poland has lost any notion of reality because it continues to aggravate the constitutional crisis. Sophie in’t Veld MEP says activating Article 7 is virtually "inevitable".
The Commission refuses to "speculate" at this stage about the next step in the process. Three meetings of the College of Commissioners are scheduled in November. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic and Jan Kordys)