Poland pushes supreme court overhaul despite warning from Brussels

Poland pushes supreme court overhaul despite warning from Brussels
Commission first vice-president Frans Timmermans has warned Poland's EU voting rights could be suspended under Article 7 of the Treaty of the European Union if it does not back away from its judiciary reform. / euranet_plus.
By Wojciech Kosc in Warsaw July 20, 2017

The Polish parliament pushed the contested overhaul of the country’s supreme court to its final reading early on July 20, ignoring a new warning from Brussels on what's seen as a legislative blitzkrieg targeting the judiciary branch for politicisation.

Poland’s ruling party Law and Justice (PiS) is nearing completion of a massive reform of the judiciary, which PiS says has developed into a corporate caste that has lost sight of the ordinary Poles it is supposed to help. However, the way the reform has been conceived is ostensibly unconstitutional and will lead to the judiciary coming under control of the government, critics charge.

The reform has prompted the European Commission to re-focus on Poland’s adherence to the rule of law principle, which the Commission has been investigating since January 2016, following PiS’s takeover of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal.

“Recent measures taken by the Polish authorities on the judicial system greatly amplify the threat to the rule of law in Poland,” Commission first vice-president Frans Timmermans tweeted on July 19 after the EU executive met to discuss the issue.

The Commission will convene once more next week to ponder a response, with Timmermans hinting that “given the latest developments, we are getting very close to triggering Article 7 of the Treaty on the European Union”.

Article 7 was devised to sanction EU member states in the event that they commit a violation of the fundamental principles of the bloc, such as the rule of law or human rights. It has never been used.

"We regret that the government’s reform efforts, supported by the public at home, are being abused by domestic and foreign opposition in the ongoing political fight. We also note with concern the attempts of external interference in the pending legislative process," Poland's foreign ministry said in reaction to the Commission's latest stance.

Poland is, however, unlikely to become the first member state to experience the Article 7's effect – which suspends a member state’s voting rights in the bloc – because unanimity is required to activate it. Hungary, which itself has been at odds with Brussels over the policies of the populist government of Viktor Orban, is, for instance, deemed likely to block the use of the article against Warsaw.

Meanwhile, PiS’s takeover of the supreme court might possibly be completed before the Commission meets on Poland again next week. In less than four hours last night, the ruling party neutralised the opposition’s plan to obstruct proceedings and pushed the draft bill reorganising the court to the final reading.

PiS plans to send the bill to the senate this week. Earlier hopes that President Andrzej Duda would intervene with a veto appear to be fading.

Duda said on July 18 he would not sign off on the supreme court bill unless changes are introduced to another important bill, with which PiS is seeking to rein in the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS), a key institution of the Polish judiciary system with broad powers in appointing judges. PiS accommodated the president’s changes in its KRS bill.

There is concern that, upon seizing control of the supreme court, PiS will next try to push through a constitutionally controversial election law and have an obedient supreme court rubber-stamp a vote cementing the party's rule.

PiS’s plans are having a galvanising effect on the atomised opposition, with the main parties now calling for a “united front” against PiS, focused on blocking the judicial reforms. Thousands of Poles are also

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