The Polish government must still bring guarantees and concrete progress in terms of independence of the judiciary to be able to exit the so-called Article 7 procedure of the Treaty that was launched by the Commission in December 2017 (see EUROPE 12003).
This is the message that European Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans and the European ministers responsible for European affairs delivered to Warsaw when they met in Brussels on Monday 14 May.
However, the time period for responding that was given to the Polish authorities "has clearly been exceeded" France's minister, Nathalie Loiseau, stated, also on behalf of Germany.
The Commission had indeed given the Polish authorities three months on 20 December last year to come into line with its recommendations on the independence of the judiciary (see EUROPE 11930).
At the end of the meeting, Timmermans considered that while progress has been made "we are not yet there" and Poland is now asked to remove all the doubts raised by its reforms by the next General Affairs Council, in Luxembourg on 26 June. "Progress has been made, but not enough for us to be able to say that the systemic risk no longer exists", he resumed.
Reasons for satisfaction were given on the age of retirement for male and female judges, or on the reduction of the remit of the justice minister, but concerns remain as to other aspects of the reforms, on the prolongation of the mandates of judges from the Supreme Court or from ordinary courts, or again on the procedures for extraordinary appeals and the possibility of reviewing judgments handed down thirty years ago, some until 1997, Timmermans stated.
At the next Council, two paths are possible: - one, which is hoped for by the Commission, amounting to the conclusion that tangible progress has been made, enabling the Treaty Article 7 procedure to be closed (which is currently in a 'prevention' phase); - or the other, which consists of asking the Council to make a more formal decision on the risk of serious violation of fundamental values in the country.
This second stage would orientate the debates towards 'sanctions'. Before the vote at the Council (by two thirds majority) on this observation of clear risk, Poland and the Commission would be invited to present their respective arguments during a hearing.
But the dialogue "will not be able to continue eternally", Timmermans warned, and Poland is also in agreement on this point. Without setting a firm ultimatum, the Commission hopes to conclude the procedure before the summer, because engaging then in a vote of the Council would open a more formal procedure from which it will be more difficult to withdraw.
"The dialogue started between the Commission and Poland is naturally welcome, but it should not be an end in itself. We reaffirm that this dialogue must now produce tangible results", France warned from its side, along with Germany. "We thus await the swift adoption by Poland of measures that are of a nature to respond fully to the concerns expressed by the Commission in its reasoned opinion".
The question of the rule of law was furthermore addressed on Monday morning by the Polish secretary of state for European affairs, Konrad Szymanski, as part of the ongoing debate on the post-2020 budget in which he criticised the Commission's proposal to block European funds in case of problems (see other article). (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)