Members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE) once again expressed their impatience, if not anger, on Tuesday 16 March, with the European Commission and the Council of the EU over the lack of a European response to the deteriorating state of judicial independence in Poland.
The European Parliament voted in 2020 on a report urging the EU Council to proceed to the next stage of the so-called Article 7 procedure of the Treaty on the respect of the Rule of law, which would involve a vote of the Member States finding a serious risk of violation (see EUROPE 12560/5).
Facing the MEPs, the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, could only say that he was powerless, reminding them that “it is up to the EU Council to decide” whether to move on to this next stage.
The MEPs deplored the absence of the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council at the hearing, as well as the absence of the Polish Justice Minister, Zbigniew Ziobro, who had also declined the invitation.
However, Mr Reynders listed a number of concerns, including a succession of Court of Justice of the EU rulings, the most recent of which concerned the inability of Polish courts to refer questions to the Court of Justice for preliminary rulings (see EUROPE 12669/25), and recent decisions by the Polish government to transfer at least “twenty” prosecutors to workplaces “far from their families”.
The prosecutors concerned had to comply within “48 hours, and there was no appeal possible”, the Commissioner noted. He also recalled that the various concerns about the functioning of the Constitutional Court have not been addressed either.
“I assure you that the Commission is determined to use all the tools at its disposal”, the Commissioner nevertheless pleaded. A decision could thus be taken quickly on the fate of the ‘muzzle act’, the new disciplinary regime for Supreme Court judges, which has been the subject of two reasoned opinions since late 2020 (see EUROPE 12645/21). The same applies to the issue of lifting the immunity of judges.
Mr Reynders also urged the EU Council to continue its Article 7 review, which also targets Hungary.
However, the Commissioner did not convince MEPs, who wondered “how much more destruction” of the Polish judiciary was needed before the Commission and the EU Council decide to act.
On behalf of the Greens/EFA group, German MEP Terry Reintke said it was “regrettable” that those responsible “don't even show up anymore”. “This shows where we are”, she said.
The LIBE Committee Chair, Juan Fernando López Aguilar, stressed that all the values and fundamental rights of Article 2 of the Treaty were now at risk in Poland.
On the same day, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, expressed her concern about two Polish draft laws, publishing a letter to the Polish Prime Minister on 8 March.
The first text provides for an advertising revenue tax on media outlets which could, in practice, lead to “the suffocation of independent media outlets”, said Ms Mijatović.
The second text concerns the protection of freedom of speech of social media users and envisages the creation of a review body for appeals against internet companies regarding access to content. “How independent will this body be? How will ‘illegal content’ be defined? What about data retention?”, the Commissioner asks, concerned about “persisting gaps” in national framework regarding hate speech in Poland.
See the letter: https://bit.ly/3qToPOs (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic, with Véronique Leblanc)