On Wednesday 9 April, MEPs on the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs heard from Poland’s Minister of Justice, Adam Bodnar, on the priorities of the Polish Presidency of the EU Council.
With less than three months to go, he has defended an active Presidency, which has acted to protect citizens’ rights, harmonise civil law and fight corruption.
In particular, he discussed the proposal for a regulation on the cross-border protection of vulnerable adults (see EUROPE 13603/23), the proposal for a directive to harmonise certain aspects of insolvency law (see EUROPE 13595/4), and regulation on the recognition of parentage (see EUROPE 13599/14).
Regarding the legal protection of adults, Adam Bodnar argued that this text should be based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, while respecting the differences between national legal systems.
Krzysztof Śmiszek (S&D, Polish) asked the Minister about the position to be adopted: “Should we hold on to the ideas stemming from the Convention (...) or stick with this classic, even obsolete, provision on guardianship?”
The Minister confirmed that Poland was working on a national reform on this subject and acknowledged that certain provisions of the text, notably on interconnecting registers, were still being debated in the EU Council.
On the subject of the Insolvency Directive, the pre-pack procedure, which aims to speed up the restructuring of companies in difficulty prior to the formal opening of proceedings, was mentioned. Adam Bodnar stated that he wanted to obtain a mandate from the EU Council to begin trilogues with the European Parliament before the end of June.
With regard to the regulation on the recognition of parentage between Member States, the Minister noted the major differences between national legislation on this sensitive issue and maintained that the Presidency was continuing technical discussions to identify points of convergence.
Finally, regarding the anti-corruption directive (see EUROPE 13609/9), Dainius Žalimas (Renew Europe, Lithuanian) asked Mr Bodnar about the possibility of an ambitious compromise, despite the diversity in the national systems. The Minister replied that trilogues were underway and that an agreement was still possible. (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)