The situation of the rule of law in Poland has not improved since December and has even worsened in some aspects.
This was the assessment made on Tuesday 19 February by the first Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, following a meeting of the General Affairs Council, which took stock of the so-called Article 7 procedure, launched by the Commission in December 2017.
In particular, the Vice-President deplored the disciplinary measures taken against judges who had publicly taken a position on judicial reforms, considering these developments "very worrying". During the session, while Frans Timmermans noted that there had been some improvements - notably on the Supreme Court, on which the EU Court of Justice will rule in the Spring - he felt that things had not progressed or changed in their "essence", according to one source. About 12 Member States took the floor, including Germany, which also spoke on behalf of France.
Both countries consider the amendments made by the Polish government to be "insufficient" and would like to hold a new hearing of the country, as was the case three times in 2018. However, this will require referring the matter to the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU in order to include an item to this effect on the agenda of a forthcoming Council meeting, possibly in March. For its part, the Commission has expressed its openness to continue the dialogue with Warsaw in an attempt to resolve the outstanding issues. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)