The European Commission was awaiting the response from the Polish authorities, on Tuesday afternoon 20 March, as regards the recommendation and reasoned opinion it had sent to Poland on 20 December, triggering the Article 7 procedure of the Treaty on rule of law in Poland (EUROPE 11930).
At the EU General Affairs Council on Tuesday, Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans underlined the fact that the White Paper Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki had sent the Commission on 8 March (see EUROPE 11977) was not "a response to our recommendation", nor did it offer "concrete" responses to the concerns raised by the Commission.
A new General Affairs Council will be scheduled in April in order to analyse the response Warsaw was due to send during the day, and in order to gather the opinions of the member states.
According to one source, many member states spoke on Tuesday with regard to this point on Poland, and all underlined the fact that they expected Warsaw's definitive response and actions. Timmermans said that many delegations had also underlined that the White Paper did not constitute a response. The same source stated that some member states also said the White Paper had the wrong target in only speaking of specificities of the Polish judicial system, and that it missed its objective by only giving justifications in relation to this system.
The Polish government explained in the White Paper that these reforms (including of the Constitutional Court and Supreme Court) responded to the public's mistrust of the judicial system and its representatives, who are not considered to be very independent. The reforms should also serve to improve the effectiveness of decisions and shorten the time taken for civil or trade cases. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)