The First Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, and the Polish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Witold Waszczykowski, have had a major clash over the reforms of the Constitutional Court in Poland, which is at the centre of a serious dispute between Brussels and Warsaw over the rule of law (see EUROPE 11694).
In the framework of the conference on security held in Munich last weekend, the two men discussed the reform of the constitutional court, which the Commission has been challenging since the end of 2015. Timmermans assured Waszczykowski that the European institution would intervene in the Netherlands in exactly the same way if the Dutch government should act against the Constitution.
Timmermans said that a Constitutional Court is not a legal obligation and that “if a country has one, then it needs to respect the Constitution”.
“Allow me to say that we respect our Constitution, but not your vision of our Constitution”, Waszczykowski retorted. Timmermans reiterated that the Polish government had asked for the opinion of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe (see EUROPE 11646). “The Commission was entirely clear, and all it got back was an offensive response”, he observed.
Warsaw theoretically had until Tuesday 21 February to respond to the most recent request sent to it by the Commission, in December of last year (see EUROPE 11694). In particular, the Polish authorities were supposed to fully implement the judgements of the Constitutional Court of December 2015, stating that the three judges legally elected should take up their positions. The publication of all judgements of the Constitutional Court and the guarantee that this Court may effectively verify the constitutionality of all laws are also included in the recommendations of December.
On Monday 21 February, the Commission declined to state whether this stand-off between the two men in Munich indicated that the European institution was planning to trigger article 7 of the treaty, a procedure that may ultimately culminate in sanctions for Poland. The Commission is awaiting Warsaw's response and will know more once it receives it, but it is probably still a little early for a substantive debate at the meeting of the College of Commissioners on Wednesday 22 February, a source told us. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)