Poland expects Commission to drop dispute over judiciary
Minister says Warsaw has given Brussels a comprehensive explanation of its reforms.
Poland's Witold Waszczykowski, Minister of Foreign Affairs | Gian Ehrenzeller/EPA
By Gašper Završnik
February 21, 2017 12:11 pm CET
Poland expects the European Commission to end its dispute with Warsaw over judicial independence, Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski said on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
"I expect that the matter will be closed," Waszczykowski told radio Trojka, a day after Warsaw submitted a defense of its judicial reforms in response to the Commission's concerns.
"We explained comprehensively what happened in Poland, how the reforms relating to the Constitutional Court have been implemented," Waszczykowski said.
Relations between Poland and the EU turned sour after the Law and Justice (PiS) party of Jarosław Kaczyński won power in 2015 and refused to accept five judges chosen for the country's top constitutional court by the previous government.
The move was widely seen as an attack on an independent judiciary and swiftly earned a rebuke from the Commission, which launched a probe looking into "systemic threats" to the rule of law in Poland. In December, Brussels gave Warsaw a two-month deadline to respond to a series of recommendations.
If there is no "satisfactory follow-up" by the end of February, the Commission could try to start a process which could lead to Poland losing its voting rights in the European Council. However, the Commission has found little enthusiasm in the bloc to punish Warsaw so far and even less unity on how to handle the right-wing government.
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