The European Parliament adopted by 513 votes to 148 with 33 abstentions on Thursday 17 September the interim report by Spain’s Juan Fernando López Aguilar (S&D) on the Article 7 EU Treaty procedure against Poland and called on the European Commission and the EU Council to act, 3 years after it was triggered.
Elected officials also outlined any controversial judicial or societal reforms undertaken by the PiS government and listed their concerns such as the lack of respect for the independence of the judiciary, the rights of LGBTI people, the de facto criminalisation of sex education or restrictions on abortion and access to contraception.
“Parliament has adopted several resolutions on this subject and the Commission has launched four infringement proceedings, but the Polish authorities still refuse to respect European values and continue to act in defiance of the European legal order. It is high time for the EU Council to conclude the Article 7 procedure in a meaningful way”, said the rapporteur in a statement.
On 22 September the European Affairs Ministers of the Member States will resume their work on Article 7; the Commission will take stock of the situation in Poland and Hungary, whose representatives will be invited to speak. A broader exchange of views is expected to follow, a diplomatic source said Thursday. But the EU Council is faced with a real dilemma: Hungary and Poland are mutually supportive, so the purpose of the procedure (to deprive the country of its voting rights), which requires unanimity, can hardly be achieved.
The EU Council could also take a vote noting the violations, the next step after the hearings, and thus send “a political message”, but this could also mean the end of the procedure, the source added.
The continuation of dialogue as a “means of maintaining pressure” on reforms therefore seems, at present, to be the only avenue envisaged by Ministers on the subject of Article 7 procedures.
Link to text: https://bit.ly/2FJ7O7S (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)