The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) supports the European Commission's decision to trigger the 'article 7' procedure of the Treaty of the European Union to enforce the rule of law in Poland, but calls for the Polish regions to be left unaffected by any sanctions, in an opinion adopted on Thursday 1 February by 77 votes to 39 with 26 abstentions.
In the opinion, the members of the Committee reiterated their opposition to the ex-post political conditionality that would, as they put it, take the regions “hostage” for policies pursued by the national government. The CoR argues that there are already provisions in the partnership agreements to allow funding to be suspended in the event of a breach of the rule of law by the local and regional authorities. The resolution calls upon Poland and the Commission to enter into constructive dialogue and warns of the consequences of this decision on the future spending of the European Union post-2020.
All of the amendments tabled by the ECR group of the CoR, amongst other things criticising the interference of the Commission, were rejected, suggesting that this group's members are among those who voted against the resolution, according to one source. The ALDE group also lost its amendment, which basically supported the possibility of sanctioning the regions in the event of infringements of the principle of the rule of law, in order to increase the pressure on the member state. Even though the amendment was rejected, ALDE still backed the resolution.
In December 2017, the Commission announced that it was to launch the complex article 7 proceeded to suspend Poland's voting rights at the Council following a highly controversial judicial reform (see EUROPE 11930). At the end of January, the committee on civil liberties of the European Parliament confirmed the launch of the article 7 procedure (see EUROPE 11949). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)