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. “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. “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.
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.