On Tuesday 20 February, the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU and the European Commission, through the Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hadja Lahbib, and the Vice-President for Values and Transparency, Věra Jourová, respectively, welcomed the progress made by Poland to re-establish the rule of law and put an end to the so-called ‘Article 7’ procedure of the Treaty, opened against Warsaw at the end of 2017.
Welcoming the fact that Donald Tusk’s new government had itself asked to put the ‘Article 7’ procedure against Poland on the agenda for the meeting of EU European Affairs ministers, the two officials reported a “very positive atmosphere and very positive reactions from the Member States”, while the Polish Minister of Justice, Adam Bodnar, presented them with a 7-point action plan for settling the disputes that have been open for 7 years between the Commission and Poland.
“There has been no progress in recent years, and now we have realistic plans to bring ‘Article 7’ to a close”, commented the Vice-President, who recalled that the disputes with the former PiS government were not just about “one or two issues”, but about identified “systemic” threats, with a whole series of interconnected elements.
“We must do everything in our power to restore the rule of law”, declared the Polish Minister of Justice, whose action plan aims to restore the independence of the judiciary, particularly within the National Council of the Judiciary, the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court and the separation of the functions of Minister of Justice and Head of the National Prosecutor’s Office.
The two European leaders also warmly welcomed the government’s intention to comply with all decisions of the EU Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights, as well as Warsaw’s wish to join the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The European Commission opened the ‘Article 7’ procedure against Poland at the end of 2017. Restoring the independence of the judiciary in the country is a condition for releasing €76 billion in cohesion funds and €60 billion from the European recovery fund.
At this stage, the Vice-President and the Belgian Minister did not want to give a timetable for bringing this ‘Article 7’ procedure to an end, the Belgian Minister explaining that the Commission and the Member States will still have to assess the implementation of these Polish commitments.
The European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, for his part, indicated that the Commission might make an assessment “in the coming weeks and we will then see what the next steps are”. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)