The Polish government announced that European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans is set to visit Warsaw, Poland on April 9

European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans will visit Warsaw on April 9, the Polish government said Thursday, amid conflict over Poland's controversial court reforms.

"His visit is a continuation of the ongoing impartial and fact-based dialogue between Poland's government and the European Commission," government spokeswoman Joanna Kopcinska told AFP.

She added that Timmermans had been invited to the Polish capital by Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz.

According to the Polish news agency PAP, the talks will mainly revolve around the court reforms that led the European Union to launch unprecedented legal action against Warsaw.

Brussels in December triggered Article 7 of the EU treaty over what it sees as "systemic threats" to the independence of the Polish judiciary from the country's right-wing government -- a move that could lead to never-before-used sanctions.

Poland had three months to reply to the EU's concerns. Last week the foreign ministry said it had met the deadline, without specifying the contents of its response.

A lawmaker from the governing Law and Justice (PiS) party, Marek Ast, however announced that a draft law would be introduced to slightly modify the reforms.

The opposition denounced the changes as merely cosmetic.

Timmermans said last week that the EU's executive arm will analyse Warsaw's response before ministers meet again next month to assess whether "steps forward were made or not".

The stakes are high if Warsaw fails to satisfy Brussels.

It could be stripped of voting rights in the bloc under the Article 7 procedure -- covering systemic threats to the rule of law -- which had never been previously used against an EU state.

However, Poland's ally Hungary, which has also clashed with Brussels over democracy issues, has vowed to veto any sanction.</s>WARSAW: Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz on Wednesday stressed Poland's right to reform its judiciary however it likes, adding he regrets that the European Union launched unprecedented legal action against Warsaw.

"We defend our right to reform our justice system in accordance with the expectations of Polish people," Czaputowicz told parliament during an annual overview of Poland's foreign diplomacy.

These reforms "do not violate the principles of the democratic rule of law... instead they reinforce them."

Brussels in December triggered Article 7 of the EU treaty over what it sees as "systemic threats" to the independence of the Polish judiciary from the country's right-wing government -- a move that could lead to never-before-used sanctions.

Poland had three months to reply to the EU's concerns and on Tuesday the foreign ministry said it had met the deadline, without specifying the contents of its response.

Judging from Czaputowicz's remarks to parliament however, it does not appear that Poland offered to make any concessions in its letter to the EU.

European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said Tuesday that the EU's executive arm will analyse Warsaw's response before ministers meet again next month to assess whether "steps forward were made or not".

The stakes are high if Warsaw fails to satisfy Brussels.

It could be stripped of voting rights in the bloc under the Article 7 procedure -- covering systemic threats to the rule of law -- which had never been previously used against an EU state.

However, Poland's ally Hungary, which has also clashed with Brussels over democracy issues, has vowed to veto any sanction.</s>The Polish government published a white paper last week aiming to explain its recent judicial reforms. Contrary to expectations in Brussels, the paper demonstrates that the government is not moving an inch and is intent on demolishing the judiciary. Brussels should finally take the ruling Law and Justice party at its word and stop looking for an excuse for a “dialogue” with what has clearly become a renegade in the European Union.

The main problem with the Law and Justice reforms is not the party’s intent to purge the judicial system of the alleged remaining communist rot (although as many have pointed out, the justice system was subject to a lustration process in the 1990s, and the average age of Polish judges is 47, so most are too young to have been on the bench in the communist era). At issue is the way in which Law and Justice is proceeding. The party is openly contemptuous and ignorant toward the rules of politics and has violated Poland’s own laws, including its own constitution, when adopting new legislation.

This threatens to undermine Poland’s democracy and legal system — and it will have significant impact outside it, too.

Last week, the ruling party dismissed the majority of the National Council of the Judiciary, the body responsible for appointing judges across the country, despite constitutional guarantees forbidding the shortening of their terms. When replacing them with its own candidates, the justice minister left no doubt about the intent of the reform, saying: “The whole process of selecting judges was out of the government’s control; this has now changed.” In a month, around 40 percent of sitting Supreme Court judges will also be forced out as part of Law and Justice’s reforms adopted in December. All of this was made possible in part by the party’s aggressive 2016 takeover of the Constitutional Tribunal, which adjudicates constitutional disputes. The party had installed its own judges to the tribunal through a series of unconstitutional steps, including by refusing to publish the tribunal’s rulings in the official gazette, hence stopping them from taking legal effect.

In the new system, subject to vague criteria and a three-year grace period, practically anyone who has felt wronged by the courts in the past 20 years could have their cases reopened and reexamined by a newly established, extraordinary chamber nominated by the Law and Justice party, and all decisions related to disciplining and sanctioning judges will happen under the auspices of a new body whose judges are also effectively chosen by the ruling party. This new Supreme Court chamber is responsible for validating elections as well, a task that had been within the purview of an independently appointed court earlier.

From its white paper, the government seems unbothered by the fact that the reforms were unconstitutional. The document admits that Law and Justice lacks the two-thirds majority in the lower house of parliament required to amend the constitution but argues that “it was necessary to carry out the reform by different means.” Such an approach is a clear demonstration of Law and Justice’s thinking, according to which there are no rules worth respecting other than the ones set by the party.

It is not hard to see how drastically these changes have already altered Poland’s legal system. The appointment of judges and their careers now depend on the goodwill of the governing party. It is also not hard to imagine what abuses await when final legal decisions are made subject to reexamination; in a court case, after all, one side is always unhappy with the outcome.

What Law and Justice is doing is revolutionary. The party is not only electing its own judges and giving them extraordinary powers, it is essentially taking over the state, operating with full disregard for constitutional and parliamentary norms. It is basing its actions on the vague notion of “social justice,” making an arbitrary differentiation between just outcomes in a legal sense and just outcomes according to its own social priorities and claiming the right as the elected party to decide the difference.

This is why small concessions to the European Commission — such as watering down controversial laws as Hungary previously did and then publicizing the end result as a victory on both sides — will not be enough in Poland. The European Union has drawn a line with the launch of Article 7 proceedings, and it should not back down until Poland’s government has fully remedied the situation. In addition to preparing formal sanctions, if necessary, the EU should condition the distribution of EU cohesion funds on rule-of-law criteria, and clarify that countries refusing to accept the jurisdiction of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office will not be eligible for funding.

Certainly, having to face both growing nationalism and increasing interdependence puts the EU in a bind. Political parties in member states demand more sovereignty, as demonstrated by the Brexit vote, but new challenges increasingly require deeper and stronger cooperation, as shown by the migration crisis. These conflicting trends have bolstered the appeal of creating a “multi-speed Europe,” or breaking the union into a core group and a less tightly connected second tier.

Yet Western member states would be wrong to assume that ignoring attacks on the rule of law in the eastern half of Europe can shield them from their effects, even in a multi-speed arrangement.

In the end, if the revolutionary forces at work in Hungary and Poland prevail, the impact will be felt across the EU, which depends in part on the consistent enforceability of judicial decisions. No political union can function with zones of legal uncertainty. What happens in Warsaw or Budapest will also affect Paris and Berlin, and the sooner that decision-makers realize it, the better.

The EU has no other option but to continue working through Article 7 proceedings with Poland and not buy the Law and Justice government’s current charm offensive. Already in the past three months — that had allegedly been set aside for a dialogue with the commission — the Polish government has implemented some of its reforms, creating new facts on the ground that will be difficult to reverse. A further delay in taking seriously the Polish government and its intentions will result in a situation where future legal changes will be of no use, for the government will have packed the court system with loyalists across the country and instilled a sense of justified fear in those willing to question its power.

The experience with Poland shows us that democracy does always not die in darkness but sometimes bare naked, for all of us to see. It’s up to Brussels to take action — but it’s up to Europeans everywhere to reflect on how fragile the EU has been revealed to be.</s>European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans will visit Warsaw on April 9, the Polish government said Thursday, amid conflict over Poland's controversial court reforms.

"His visit is a continuation of the ongoing impartial and fact-based dialogue between Poland's government and the European Commission," government spokeswoman Joanna Kopcinska told AFP.

She added that Timmermans had been invited to the Polish capital by Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz.

According to the Polish news agency PAP, the talks will mainly revolve around the court reforms that led the European Union to launch unprecedented legal action against Warsaw.

Brussels in December triggered Article 7 of the EU treaty over what it sees as "systemic threats" to the independence of the Polish judiciary from the country's right-wing government -- a move that could lead to never-before-used sanctions.

Poland had three months to reply to the EU's concerns. Last week the foreign ministry said it had met the deadline, without specifying the contents of its response.

A lawmaker from the governing Law and Justice (PiS) party, Marek Ast, however announced that a draft law would be introduced to slightly modify the reforms.

The opposition denounced the changes as merely cosmetic.

Timmermans said last week that the EU's executive arm will analyse Warsaw's response before ministers meet again next month to assess whether "steps forward were made or not".

The stakes are high if Warsaw fails to satisfy Brussels.

It could be stripped of voting rights in the bloc under the Article 7 procedure -- covering systemic threats to the rule of law -- which had never been previously used against an EU state.

However, Poland's ally Hungary, which has also clashed with Brussels over democracy issues, has vowed to veto any sanction.</s>BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The EU executive launched an unprecedented process on Wednesday to suspend Poland's voting rights in the European Union after two years of dispute over judicial reforms that Brussels says undermine Polish courts' independence.

 The European Commission, the guardian of EU law, will now ask the other EU governments to declare that Poland's changes to the judiciary constitute "a clear risk of a serious breach" of EU values -- especially the rule of law.

 However, it gave Warsaw, where a new prime minister took office only this month, three months to remedy the situation and said it could rescind its decision if it did so. Often referred to as the EU's "nuclear option", the move carries the ultimate threat of sanctions but is in fact unlikely to result in that.

 "The Commission has today concluded that there is a clear risk of a serious breach of the rule of law in Poland," the Commission said in a statement.

 "Judicial reforms in Poland mean that the country's judiciary is now under the political control of the ruling majority. In the absence of judicial independence, serious questions are raised about the effective application of EU law."

 The Commission's deputy head, First Vice President Frans Timmermans, who has conducted talks with the Polish government dominated by Law and Justice Party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski for the past two years, said he was acting "with a heavy heart" but was obliged to take action to protect the Union as a whole.

 "We are open for dialogue 24/7," Timmermans said, saying that if Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who took office just this month, were to change tack, he would be ready to respond.

 But Timmermans insisted: "As guardians of the treaty, the Commission is under a strict responsibility to act ... If the application of the rule of law is left completely to the individual member states, then the whole of the EU will suffer." 

 "This decision has no merit. It is in our opinion a purely political decision," Beata Mazurek, a spokeswoman for Poland's ruling party, was quoted as saying by state news agency PAP.

 Stung by Britain's vote last year to leave the Union, the EU institutions are battling a rise in euroskeptic nationalism across the continent and particularly in the former Communist east, where Poland's ally Hungary has also prompted previously the Commission to threaten sanctions over the rule of law.

 

 "EXISTENTIAL IMPORTANCE"

 Seeking to counter Warsaw's accusations of an anti-Polish bias in Brussels and in his own behavior, Timmermans, who once worked in the Soviet bloc as a Dutch diplomat, praised Poland's historic contribution to overcoming the Cold War divide of Europe but said Warsaw now bore a special responsibility to prevent new rifts opening up over democratic principles.

 "I want to stand by the Polish people in this time which is very difficult for them, and for us," he said, adding that the defending a separation of powers was of "existential importance not just for the Polish nation but for the EU as a whole".

 The next step in the process is that EU governments, meeting in the Council of the European Union, will hear Poland out and ask it to address their concerns. 

 But if 22 out of the EU's 28 countries and the European Parliament are not satisfied in the end, the process will move on to the next stages, which may mean sanctions.

 The sanctions can involve the suspension of "the rights deriving from the application of the Treaties to the Member State in question, including the voting rights". 

 This formulation leaves open the possibility also of suspending EU financial transfers to Poland, now the biggest beneficiary of European funds aimed at boosting living standards in the former communist country.

 Sanctions can be imposed with the backing of a majority of countries representing a majority of the EU's citizens. But to get to that stage, EU governments have first to unanimously agree that what was initially just a risk of a serious breach of the rule of law has now become a reality.

 This is unlikely to happen, because Hungary has already declared that it would not support such a motion against Poland.

 But the mere threat of it underlines the sharp deterioration in ties between Warsaw and Brussels since the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party won power in late 2015.

 The Commission and Council of Europe legal experts, known as the Venice Commission, say Poland's judicial reforms undermine judges' independence because they give the ruling party control over the sacking and the appointments of judges, as well as the option to end the terms of some Supreme Court judges early.

 The Council of Europe, Europe's human rights watchdog, has compared such measures to those of the Soviet system.

 The PiS government rejects these accusations, saying the changes are needed because courts are slow, inefficient and steeped in a communist era-mentality. Polish President Andrzej Duda has until Jan. 5 to sign them into law.

 

 (Additional reporting by Marcin Goclowski in Warsaw and Alastair Macdonald in Brussels; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)</s>BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission on Monday reserved judgment on the Polish president's veto of two laws that Brussels fears would undermine judicial independence, instead saying it would discuss the matter at its next meeting.

 President Andrzej Duda surprised his allies in the socially conservative, euroskeptic Law and Justice (PiS) party by saying he would block two of three new bills giving the government powers to replace Supreme Court judges.

 Brussels last week said it would open more legal cases against Poland this Wednesday if the three new laws are enacted.

 Margaritis Schinas, spokesman for the European Union's executive arm, suggested in a briefing on Monday that Brussels needed time to analyse the new situation.

 "The Commission is following the events and the situation in Poland very closely," he said. All developments and all the changes that are going on will be addressed by the Commission on Wednesday."

 PiS says the reforms are needed to make the courts serve all Poles, not just the "elites".

 But Commission Deputy President Frans Timmermans said last week that the bills would "abolish any remaining judicial independence and put the judiciary under full political control of the government".

 The Commission last year launched an unprecedented review of the rule of law in Poland over concerns that more direct government control over the judiciary and the media were undermining democratic checks and balances.

 A senior EU diplomat said it was not clear at this stage whether the amendments that Duda was asking for would be more than cosmetic.

 The diplomat said Brussels had been sounding out member states on a possible vote declaring that they see the rule of law as threatened in Poland - a vote that would require the assent of four-fifths of member states.

 Even if such a resolution were passed, it is highly unlikely that the EU would actually punish Poland with sanctions, as this would require the unanimous approval of the other 27 member states - something that PiS's euroskeptic ally, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has made clear he would block.

 

 (Additional reporting by Jan Strupczewski; Editing by Kevin Liffey)</s>Poland is hoping to step into the gap after Britain leaves the European Union, emulating its caution over Russia and defence of national sovereignty, Warsaw's top diplomat has told AFP.

Despite heightened tensions with Brussels over a series of controversial court reforms which could see Poland facing sanctions, Warsaw is determined to drive forward its vision of the bloc's future after Britain's departure in March 2019.

"What's taking shape is the possibility of us taking Britain's place (in terms of) its programme: commitment to free competition and awareness of the Russian threat, as well a defence of its own positions, of its sovereignty," Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz told AFP.

Like Poland, Britain had always had a more realistic view of Russian aggression than Germany or France, he said, pointing to the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy on British soil, with London pointing the finger at Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"We've always been wary of Putin's actions, and we were right," Czaputowicz said, mentioning Russia's annexation of Crimea and its action in Syria.

"And now the attempted murder of (Sergei) Skripal. We see a continuation of this policy."

Following Britain's lead, Poland, France and Germany have each expelled four Russian diplomats in response to poisoning scandal in a united show of strength.

"It's an important sign of our unity and a signal to Moscow that it's not possible to divide Western countries regarding their stance towards Russia," he said.

What does give him pause in Europe, however, is French President Emmanuel Macron's vision of a "sovereign Europe".

"It's impossible to have sovereignty within sovereignty. In other words, a sovereign Europe calls into question the sovereignty of member states," he said.

The issue could very well come up next month when Czaputowicz, who took over as foreign minister earlier this year, pays his first visit to Paris.

"I doubt the French would accept sovereignty passing over to the EU at the expense of French sovereignty," he said.

"So it's necessary to continue the conversation, even as both sides want a strong Europe."

Czaputowicz also zeroed in on the European Commission, which last year launched unprecedented legal action against Warsaw over the governing conservatives' reform of the Polish judiciary.

The question, he said, was about the source of the EU's legitimacy, which Poland sees as stemming from national parliaments.

"We defend parliamentary democracy," he said.

"The question is about the reinforcement of certain supranational institutions, like the Commission. It's a question of what is their role -- if they are legitimate per se or if they are legitimate by virtue of the member states' decisions," Czaputowicz said.

In December, Brussels triggered Article 7 of the EU treaty over what it sees as "systemic threats" to the independence of the Polish judiciary -- in a move that could lead to an unprecedented round of sanctions.

After turning a deaf ear to the EU's concerns for months, Poland's rightwing government said last week it would introduce a draft law to slightly modify the judiciary changes.

Western diplomats welcomed the changes -- which notably concern the retirement age of judges and the dismissal procedure of chief justices -- as a bid to thaw ties with the EU.

But Poland's liberal opposition believes the changes are merely "cosmetic".

"There is a willingness to compromise" on Poland's side, said Czaputowicz, who will meet European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans in Warsaw on April 9.

But he said that certain changes "are out of the question -- those that could destroy the system put in place."

Warsaw also wants to revive the so-called "Weimar Triangle" which grouped Poland, France and Germany but was effectively put on hold by Paris after Warsaw abruptly dropped a multi-billion euro helicopter deal with a French aeronautics firm.

Within the group, Poland could also represent other Central and Eastern European countries with which it has "shared interests, shared aspirations within the EU, shared history and the same geopolitical situation," he said.

Poland could thus "introduce Central Europe's way of thinking and expectations into a common European vision."</s>WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland has paid a bitter price for making concessions to the European Union on its judicial reforms, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, head of the ruling conservatives and the country's paramount leader, said on Tuesday.

Last week, Poland's government, run by the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, told Brussels it was willing to make some changes to the reforms that the European Commissions had said subverted the rule of law.

"The price is significant, it's bitter," Kaczynski told the conservative news site wPolityce.pl. "I'm not going to hide that we model ourselves on the (Hungarian) Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has often had to make unpleasant concessions."

Kaczynski added that he would have preferred to go ahead with the reforms, but internal and external "circumstances" have forced the changes.

Under the changes, the justice minister now would have seek the opinion of judges before deciding whether to dismiss a court president. PiS was also willing to equalize the compulsory retirement age of female and male judges at 65 years.

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

The initial judicial overhaul also 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>Baku. 1 March. REPORT.AZ/ European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, European Commission Vice-President Federica Mogherini is on a visit to Armenia.

According to the information, EU official will meet with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan, as well as the representatives of political parties and civil society in the parliament.</s>BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union's executive gave Poland on Tuesday one month to address concerns over a judiciary overhaul or face a court challenge, stepping up pressure over Warsaw's reforms which critics say undermine the independence of the courts.

The Commission opened legal proceedings against the nationalist government in Warsaw over judicial reforms in July and said on Tuesday that Poland so far failed to address the points that had been raised. 

 It therefore moved to the second phase of the EU's infringement procedure and said it could escalate the case further if Warsaw does not address the concerns in a month.

 "If the Polish authorities do not take appropriate measures, the Commission may decide to refer the case to the Court of Justice of the EU," the Commission said in a statement.

 

 (Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska)
The Polish government announces a planned visit for April 9 from European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans. The government of Poland and the European Union are locked in a dispute over planned judicial reforms.