WARSAW (Reuters) - Concessions in judicial reforms planned by Poland's ruling party are aimed at signaling to the European Commission that a compromise with Warsaw is possible, but will preserve the most important part of the reforms, the Polish prime minister said.

 On Thursday, the Polish Law and Justice (PiS) party presented plans to change some elements of its judicial reforms in response to European Commission criticism that they threaten to undermine the rule of law. 

 The right-wing Polish government and the European Commission have been at loggerheads for two years changes to the judicial system that the EU executive believes undermine the rule of law by placing more government control over judges.

 Warsaw, which says the changes were necessary to push aside judges left over from the Communist era, had for months declined to make any concessions to Brussels.

 Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Friday he wanted "the essence, most important elements of the reform to remain untouched, but at the same time we are looking at what would allow the other side to say 'Oh, one can reach a compromise with Poland.'"

 The Commission has threatened to punish Poland, including by suspending Warsaw's vote at the EU, if it does not withdraw changes that Brussels said ultimately threatened democracy.

 Under the original judicial overhaul, the justice minister was given the power to fire court presidents without providing justification and subject to no review. The concessions now proposed by the PiS would require the justice minister first to seek the opinion of judges.

 Warsaw would publish unreleased constitutional tribunal verdicts, which had ruled against the appointment of three judges nominated by PiS to the tribunal. The PiS has said those rulings were not valid because they were overturned by new laws.

 It would also equalize the retirement age of female and male judges at 65 years, raising a 60 year limit for women.

 The Polish opposition has criticized the concessions as not going far enough.

 Morawiecki said it was too early to say if the concessions planned by PiS were sufficient to win over Brussels. The proposals "were indeed received very positively" by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Morawiecki said.

 "But it would be premature to say today what the final reaction of the president will be," Morawiecki said. "For sure his wise perception, his compromise-seeking attitude may be very helpful here," the Polish premier said.

 A spokeswoman for the European Commission said on Friday the EU executive arm will analyze the Polish plan amendments.

 

 (Reporting by Marcin Goettig; Additional reporting by Jan Strupczewski in Brussels; Editing by Peter Graff)</s>BRUSSELS/WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's decision to increase logging in a primeval forest breaks EU law, an adviser to the EU's top court said on Tuesday, backing the European Commission against the government in one of several disputes straining ties between Warsaw and Brussels.

 The standoff over Bialowieza, one of Europe's last primeval forests, is part of a greater clash between the EU executive and the EU's biggest eastern member, whose ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party is accused of undermining democracy.

 The UNESCO World Heritage site straddling the border with Belarus is home to Europe's largest herd of European bison as well as unique birds and insects.

 Under the EU's Habitat Directive, EU countries have to take appropriate conservation measures for special areas. 

 In March 2016, a few months after parliamentary election won by PiS, Jan Szyszko, the environment minister at that time, approved a tripling of the quota of wood that can be harvested in one of three administrative areas of the Bialowieza Forest.

 The Polish government has said cutting down trees there was necessary to make forest paths safe for hikers and protect existing trees from a bark beetle infestation.

 "Those decisions are necessarily liable to result in a deterioration of the breeding sites of the protected species," the court's advocate general Yves Bot said.

 The European Court of Justice (ECJ) will make a final ruling in the coming months and, while judges are not obliged to follow the adviser's recommendation, they do so in most cases. 

 The European Commission said on Tuesday it was "taking note" of the ECJ opinion on Bialowieza but would wait for the final ruling before making any further comments.

 A spokesman for the executive also said the Commission was still analyzing whether Poland was or was not violating the court's interim injunction issued last year, which ordered Poland to stop logging immediately. 

 

 EXPANDED LOGGING QUOTA 

 Poland's Environment Minister Henryk Kowalczyk, who replaced Szyszko in January, said in a statement following the adviser's opinion that Poland would analyze it in detail and repeated that Warsaw would comply with the court's final judgment on the forest, which he expects most likely in April. 

 On Wednesday Kowalczyk will likely meet commissioner Karmenu Vela, responsible for environment, maritime affairs and fisheries, the executive spokesman also said.

 "We hope that minister Kowalczyk ... will put an end to the destructive policy of his predecessor and grant the whole of Bialowieza Forest national park status," said Agata Szafraniuk, a lawyer at ClientEarth, an environmentalist group.

 Most of the area of the forest in Poland is managed by three local units supervised by State Forests, the state-run body in charge of harvesting timber and protecting woodland. 

 About one sixth of the area is a national park, which protects the best preserved fragment of Białowieza Forest.

 As an interim measure, the ECJ said last year Poland would be fined 100,000 euros ($123,610) per day if it did not stop large-scale logging in the forest.

 Logging quotas to 2021 have already been reached and in one part of the forest an expanded quota, declared illegal by the European Commission, has been more than half filled despite an injunction, official forestry data shows.

 "In 2017 a total of almost 190,000 cubic meters of wood was logged in Bialowieza Forest, which is four times an average annual harvesting. The last time when such huge annual logging was reported was 30 years ago, in the communist era," said a local activist group Camp for the Forest.

 "We have a bitter satisfaction following today's opinion," said Robert Cyglicki from Greenpeace. Nothing would change the fact that an area of about 19 sq km (7.3 sq miles) of Bialowieza had been "devastated", he added. 

 

 

 (Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska in BRUSSELS; editing by Philip Blenkinsop, William Maclean)</s>BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union executive on Tuesday dismissed Poland’s latest defense of court reforms that critics say weaken democracy, potentially paving the way for more clashes with Warsaw after weeks of some rapprochement.

Poland, the biggest ex-communist EU state, stands accused of subjecting its courts to more government control since the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party won power in late 2015.

The bloc has threatened unprecedented punishment, including of suspending Warsaw’s vote, if Poland does not restore the democratic checks and balances.

The European Commission’s deputy head, Frans Timmermans, debated the matter with EU ministers meeting in Brussels after Poland published a “white paper” defending the judicial changes.

The Commission has given Poland until Tuesday to restore the rule of law, or risk proceedings under the so-called Article 7 punishment mechanism.

“There was agreement across the table that this white paper is not the answer to the Commission’s recommendations,” Timmermans told a news conference after the meeting, adding that EU ministers would discuss the matter again next month.

“If this idea that you have the right to reform the judiciary... is understood as the right to put it under political control, then we have a problem.”

Warsaw says it was led by the need to improve efficiency and accountability by removing judges who served in the post-World War Two communist government, which collapsed in 1989.

Speaking to reporters after the ministerial session in Brussels, Poland’s Deputy Foreign Minister Konrad Szymanski reiterated the reforms posed no risk to the rule of law.

Warsaw has until the end of the day to come up with a formal answer to the Commission.

Poland’s state news agency PAP quoted the response as saying Warsaw rejects the criticism and refuses to retract the laws, but is ready to assess jointly with the Commission the results of the changes.

After a two-year feud between Warsaw and the more liberal, western EU states, Poland’s new Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has reopened dialogue with the Brussels-based European Commission on the matter.

But Germany’s EU minister Michael Roth on Tuesday said Poland, which may risk losing billions of euros in EU handouts as an indirect consequence of the dispute, must not just play for time.

“Talking for talking’s sake is not enough and I hope that today... will give a clear signal that EU members support the European Commission in this essential matter,” Roth said.

The top sanction of stripping Poland of its voting rights is all but certain not to materialize as Warsaw’s ally Hungary - where the eurosceptic Prime Minister Viktor Orban has plenty of his own clashes with the EU - has vowed to block it.

But the sole fact that the EU has been debating it, albeit reluctantly, for months now causes damage to Poland’s reputation and highlights its growing isolation in the EU.

The bloc lacks hard tools to force Warsaw back into line on the courts specifically.

But, as ties between Poland and the wealthier net payers to the EU’s joint coffers sour, it raises the risk that they would retaliate by stripping Warsaw of some funding in bloc’s the next, long-term budget from 2021.

Speaking in Warsaw on Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel hoped Poland’s ruling nationalists would satisfy Europe’s concerns. Morawiecki responded that he hoped for a deal over the coming two months.</s>WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland’s ruling party plans to change some of its judicial reforms in response to European Commission criticism that they threaten to undermine the rule of law, one of the party’s lawmakers said on Thursday.

Reacting to the lawmaker’s comments, an EU official said there was a chance the two sides could reach a compromise.

Poland’s right-wing government and the Commission have been at loggerheads for two years over rule of law standards, with Warsaw for months declining to make any concessions to Brussels.

The Commission has threatened to punish Poland, including by suspending Warsaw’s vote at the EU, if it does not withdraw changes that Brussels said ultimately threatened democracy.

It was not immediately clear if the planned concessions would be enough to satisfy the EU’s demands, however.

“This is a step in the direction to ease the concerns presented by the European Commission,” Law and Justice (PiS) party Marek Ast told Reuters. “We hope that these steps will be positively received by the European Commision.”

Under the changes now planned by PiS, the justice minister would first have to seek the opinion of judges before deciding whether to dismiss a court president, Ast said.

Under the original judicial overhaul, the justice minister was granted discretionary powers to replace court presidents without seeking any secondary opinion, without having to provide any justification and subject to no review.

The European Commission has said this, along with several other changes introduced by PiS, has put at risk the independence of the judiciary and the separation of powers in Poland, the largest of the eastern economies in the EU.

Asked if more concessions were possible, Ast said: “We are open to a dialogue with the European Commission. Surprises are possible.”

PiS’s concessions come after the Commission dismissed Poland’s latest defence of its court reforms on Tuesday.

An EU official said Poland has informed the Commission of possible amendments to the judicial reforms, with a view to seeking a compromise before a debate on the bloc’s next long-term budget from 2021 gets under way.

“It looks like things are moving. There’s a chance of a compromise,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

The second concession currently planned by PiS would equalise the compulsory retirement age of female and male judges at 65 years, Ast said.

The initial judicial overhaul set the compulsory retirement age at 60 years for female judges and 65 for male judges, meaning almost 40 percent of Supreme Court judges would be forced into retirement.</s>WARSAW, March 23 (Reuters) - Concessions in judicial reforms planned by Poland's ruling party are aimed at signalling to the European Commission that a compromise with Warsaw is possible, but will preserve the most important part of the reforms, the Polish prime minister said.

On Thursday, the Polish Law and Justice (PiS) party presented plans to change some elements of its judicial reforms in response to European Commission criticism that they threaten to undermine the rule of law.

The right-wing Polish government and the European Commission have been at loggerheads for two years changes to the judicial system that the EU executive believes undermine the rule of law by placing more government control over judges.

Warsaw, which says the changes were necessary to push aside judges left over from the Communist era, had for months declined to make any concessions to Brussels.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Friday he wanted "the essence, most important elements of the reform to remain untouched, but at the same time we are looking at what would allow the other side to say 'Oh, one can reach a compromise with Poland.'"

The Commission has threatened to punish Poland, including by suspending Warsaw's vote at the EU, if it does not withdraw changes that Brussels said ultimately threatened democracy.

Under the original judicial overhaul, the justice minister was given the power to fire court presidents without providing justification and subject to no review. The concessions now proposed by the PiS would require the justice minister first to seek the opinion of judges.

Warsaw would publish unreleased constitutional tribunal verdicts, which had ruled against the appointment of three judges nominated by PiS to the tribunal. The PiS has said those rulings were not valid because they were overturned by new laws.

It would also equalise the retirement age of female and male judges at 65 years, raising a 60 year limit for women.

The Polish opposition has criticised the concessions as not going far enough.

Morawiecki said it was too early to say if the concessions planned by PiS were sufficient to win over Brussels. The proposals "were indeed received very positively" by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Morawiecki said.

"But it would be premature to say today what the final reaction of the president will be," Morawiecki said. "For sure his wise perception, his compromise-seeking attitude may be very helpful here," the Polish premier said.

A spokeswoman for the European Commission said on Friday the EU executive arm will analyse the Polish plan amendments. (Reporting by Marcin Goettig Additional reporting by Jan Strupczewski in Brussels Editing by Peter Graff)</s>Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party will modify plans to shake up the country's judiciary that have been criticized by the European Union, a PiS lawmaker said on Thursday.

The EU's executive arm, the European Commission, has threatened to sanction Poland if it fails to back-track on plans Brussels has said would threaten the independence of the Polish judiciary.

Read more: EU urges Poland to respect judicial reforms deadline or face Article 7 sanctions

What we know so far:
• The justice minister would first seek the opinions of judges before dismissing a court president. The initial plan would have allowed the justice minister to remove court presidents without a secondary opinion or review. It also would not have required the minister to provide a legal justification for the decision.
• The compulsory retirement age for female and male judges would be set at 65. The initial plan would have set the retirement age at 60 for female judges and 65 for male judges, a change that would have forced almost 40 percent of Supreme Court justices to retire.
• The Polish president would have the right to decide whether a judge could work past 65. The initial plan would have empowered the justice minister to make this decision.

What were the reactions?

Ast told Reuters news agency: "This is a step in the direction to ease the concerns presented by the European Commission." He added: "We hope that these steps will be positively received by the European Commission."

Poland's opposition said the changes were "a lie" and amounted to "window dressing," citing the fact that the PiS had already taken over the body that oversees judicial impartiality, the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS), and replaced multiple court presidents.

Former KRS spokesman Waldemar Zurek told AFP news agency that he hoped "the cosmetic changes" would not "deceive" the European Commission.

Read more: Why Poland will be the EU's biggest challenge in 2018

EU dismissal: The latest PiS move came after the European Commission on Tuesday rejected the Polish government's latest defense of the judicial changes.

Article 7: The Commission has threatened to sanction Poland under Article 7 of the EU treaty in response to what it has said are "systematic threats" to the independence of the Polish judiciary and the rule of law. The sanctions could include suspension of Poland's EU voting rights. Thursday's announcement was Poland's first concession to EU demands since Brussels triggered Article 7 in December.

Read more: Poland and the EU... It's complicated</s>Fianna Fáil has asked Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan how he intends to respond to the European Commission’s criticisms of the proposed changes to Ireland’s regime for appointing judges.

In a letter to Mr Flanagan, Fianna Fáil spokesman on justice Jim O’Callaghan has raised the issue in the context of other European countries where the appointment of judges is found not to be in line with European standards.

The Independent Minister Shane Ross is the main driver behind the proposed new judicial appointments regime, and his championing of the change is causing tensions in Cabinet, which appointed three new judges on Tuesday despite Mr Ross having said he wants new appointments put on hold until the new regime is enacted.

In its country report on Ireland published earlier this month, the European Commission said the proposed composition of the Judicial Appointments Commission, which would comprise only three judges out of 13 members, including a lay chairperson accountable to the Oireachtas, “would not be in line with European standards”.

This was a reference to a recommendation adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on November 17th, 2010, to which Ireland was a party.

The recommendation said at least half of the members of any judicial appointments body should be judges chosen by their peers with a view to guaranteeing the body’s independence.

In countries such as Ireland, where the Constitition stipulates the appointment of judges is a matter for the Government, the recommendation said the judicial appointments body should be an “independent and competent authority drawn in substantial part from the judiciary”, the recommendations of which would in practice be followed.

“The fact that the Commission has seen fit to make this negative criticism by asserting that the government’s proposals ‘would not be in line with European standards’ should ring alarm bells with you and other members of the government,” Mr O’Callaghan said in his letter to the Minister.

“The European Commission is watching closely the relationship that exists between national governments and their judiciaries and monitoring any steps by governments that may undermine or damage the independence of the judiciary within a member State,” Mr O’Callaghan said.

“I am extremely concerned that Ireland has now been criticised by the European Commission because of the government’s proposed changes to how judges will be appointed.”

The reputational damage for Ireland would be significant if it is found that our judicial appointments regime is not in line with European standards, he said.

Last week High Court judge Aileen Donnelly deferred the extradition of an alleged drug trafficker to Poland because of concerns about the quality of the rule of law there following changes introduced by the Polish government, including the system for judicial appointments.

In her decision in the Polish extradition case Ms Justice Donnelly also referred to the Committee of Ministers recommendation.

One of the changes causing concern in Poland is the creation of a National Council for the Judiciary, which will be largely dominated by political appointees.

It is part of “a concerted legislative package to politicise the judiciary and to take away its independence,” Ms Justice Donnelly noted.

She is to ask the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg for its view on whether she should consider the changes to the rule of law in Poland when considering whether to extradite people there under the European Arrest Warrant system.

The move means that a political crisis in the EU caused by the changes to the rule of law in Poland has now spread to the European legal system.</s>European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager says the European Union has conditionally approved the Bayer-Monsanto deal and explains the commission's decision process. (Source: Bloomberg)</s>Around half of Poland’s population now firmly believes the European Union is well past its best sell by date, according to a poll by the Kazimierz Pulaski Foundation. A third of the poll’s 50,000 respondents questioned over February and March have outright rejected the European project. Less than half of those polled revealed they want to stay in the EU bloc. The numbers now represent “concrete, drastic and hostile” attitudes towards the EU, argued Grzegorz Małecki, the former chief of the Polish Foreign Intelligence Agency (AW).

He said: “The answers in regards to the European Union have stunned me. These attitudes are very worrying.” The poll results come after months of bickering between Poland and the EU have destabilised the former’s position within the bloc. Poland came under fire earlier last year after the EU threatened to boot Poland out for introducing a controversial reform of the judiciary, which outsiders argued would undermine the independence of the courts. However, experts at the time told Express.co.uk Poland’s odds of leaving the EU were “minimal”.

Marcin Bużański, a political expert at IGD Group, now agreed the poll’s results are a worrying sign of the internal political turmoil in Poland. The expert accused the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) of skewing foreign policy towards the European Union to strengthen its position within Government. Mr Bużański said: “The report points to two things and they are both equally alarming. “First of all, the propaganda machine which has been using foreign policy to drive support for internal politics, is functioning very well.

“At the same time the weakness of the ‘understanding establishment’ is terrifying. It shows they are not able to oppose what is happening.” The anti-EU sentiments express in the poll seemingly fall in inline with the amount of support PiS currently enjoys at the moment, underlining the party’s popularity and effective policies. Nearly 42 percent of those questions positively acknowledged PiS’ foreign policies – 21.7 percent responded “Very Good” and 20.22 percent responded “Good”.

Only around 32 percent collectively replied in terms of either “Bad” or “Very Bad”. Just over 26 percent said they had no opinion on the matter. But the numbers are still a far cry from a majority needed to pull the country out from the bloc. Only 29.81 percent are in favour of leaving as opposed to the 47.37 percent in favour of remaining.

The figures have also slightly fallen on anti-EU sentiments from the start of the new year, when roughly 36 percent of Poles were calling for an EU exit. The report said: “This rise in support for Poland’s EU membership can be attributed to the calmed rhetoric of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki's new Government in the conflict with the EU in regards to Poland’s lawfulness and by Poland’s leadership accepting a more appeasing stance.” Surprisingly more than 22 percent of those polled remained neutral on the issue. Mr Małecki argued these figures shatter the widely held image of Poland as one of the most pro-EU countries on the continent.</s>A civil society group has applied to join High Court proceedings in which an Irish judge has asked the European Courts to rule on whether mutual trust continues to exist between Poland and other Member States in EU extradition cases.

Fair Trial Europe, a non-Governmental organisation (NGO) which aims to “defend the human right to a fair trial”, has applied to join High Court extradition proceedings involving Artur Celmer, who is wanted to face trial in his native Poland on drug trafficking charges.

The proposed surrender of Mr Celmer, who was arrested in Ireland on foot of a European Arrest Warrant last May, was referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) last week for a ruling on the effect of recent legislative changes in Poland concerning the Polish judiciary, courts and public prosecutor.

In her decision to refer the case to Europe, Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly said a number of recent legislative changes in Poland were “so immense” that the High Court was forced to conclude that the rule of law in Poland had been “systematically damaged”.

Ms Justice Donnelly received suggested questions to send to Europe from the parties today although the precise wording is a matter for her. She said she would conclude all matters by the end of this week adding that she wouldn’t delay matters any further.

The proposed questions centre on which legal tests apply where the High Court, as an executing judicial authority, has found that the common value of the rule of law in Poland has been systemically breached.

A representatives from the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Dublin was present in court for the matter.

Also in court were lawyers for Fair Trial Europe who made an application to join proceedings as an ‘amicus curiae’, or friend of the court, to assist matters.

Counsel for Fair Trial Europe, Brian Gageby BL, told Ms Justice Donnelly that his client wished to become involved in the matter when it goes before the CJEU and to provide assistance in terms of the questions being asked.

Mr Gageby said he fully appreciated the timing of the application, coming in at the “tail end of the case”. He said his client did not wish to meddle in proceedings. Their desired intention was to assist the CJEU, whether the NGO was permitted to be joined as an ‘amicus curiae’ or not.

Mr Gageby said the question was one of utility and what the proposed ‘amicus curiae’ could add to the proceedings.

Referring to an unsuccessful attempt by a “pro-life group” to join a recent Supreme Court case, Mr Gageby said it was held that the proposed ‘amicus curiae’ in that case had not indicated what they were “bringing to bear” in those proceedings.

He said Fair Trial Europe was an organisation with very considerable experience in dealing with the questions that were before the court in a pan-European context.

Counsel for the Minister for Justice, Remy Farrell SC, said Fair Trial Europe’s application had been made at the eleventh hour. That militated against allowing the NGO to be joined when an urgent preliminary ruling procedure was being contemplated.

Mr Farrell said the rules of the CJEU clearly stated that a person or body, who is not a party to the original proceedings before the domestic courts, cannot apply to be joined to proceedings in the CJEU.

He said it was difficult to understand what kind of unique perspective Fair Trial Europe could bring when their expertise related to the analysis and monitoring of trials after people had been surrendered or extradited. That was “precisely the issue that’s missing in this case,” referring to the fact Mr Celmer has not been surrendered or extradited.

Ms Justice Donnelly said she was going to consider all of the issues before her and would not delay matters any further. She said she would send the referral to Europe “as soon as possible”.

She said the application by Fair Trial Europe to join proceedings had, in one sense, caused a delay because the court had to consider the matter but the NGO was entitled to a ruling.

She said she would conclude all issues by the end of this week.

Mr Celmer was remanded until July 23rd next with liberty to bring the matter forward pending a decision from the CJEU.

Ms Justice Donnelly asked Mr Farrell how many Polish European Arrest Warrants were directly affected by this issue and, in particular, how many affected people were in custody.

Since her ruling, a distinction has been made between persons wanted in Poland for prosecution and persons wanted who had already been convicted and/or sentenced. Since her ruling, a number of people have been surrendered to Poland but only those who were already convicted and/or sentenced.

Mr Farrell said it should be possible to provide the court with some figures in that regard.
Poland's ruling Law and Justice proposes changes to planned judicial reforms in response to European Union criticisms the plans threaten judicial independence. The European Commission is threatening Poland with sanctions over the reforms.