EU executive to start legal action against Poland over judiciary reform

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EU executive to start legal action against Poland over judiciary reform

By Jan Strupczewski and Lidia Kelly

 

People gather next to the Supreme Court during the "Chain of the lights" candlelit protest against judicial reforms in Warsaw, Poland July 25, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

 

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission said on Wednesday it would launch legal action against Poland over an overhaul of its judiciary that it says undermines the independence of judges and breaks EU rules, both accusations denied by Warsaw.

 

Poland's eurosceptic, nationalist-minded government rejected Brussels' objections as "blackmail" and unjustified criticism but said Warsaw was open to talks to resolve the dispute.

 

The Commission gave Poland a month to respond to concerns for the rule of law raised by the European Union executive in an unprecedented process launched last year and now aggravated by Poland's alleged politicisation of the judiciary.

 

Polish President Andrzej Duda on Tuesday signed into law a bill giving the justice minister the power to replace heads of ordinary courts.

 

But in a move welcomed by Brussels, Duda also blocked two other bills that would have empowered the government and parliament to replace Supreme Court judges and most members of a high-level judicial panel.

 

"An independent judiciary is an essential precondition for membership in our (European) Union," Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said in a statement. "The EU can therefore not accept a system which allows dismissing judges at will."

 

"If the Polish government goes ahead with undermining the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law in Poland, we will have no other choice than to trigger Article 7," he said, referring to a legal process of suspending Poland's voting rights in the 28-nation EU.

 

Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans told a news conference on Wednesday the EU executive arm could start steps to freeze Poland's voting rights before the one-month deadline if any Supreme Court judges are fired.

 

Warsaw dismissed the Commission objections.

 

"We will not tolerate any blackmail from EU officials, especially blackmails that are not based on facts," government spokesman Rafal Bochenek told state new agency PAP. "We regret that Mr. Timmermans without knowledge of the bills and Polish law comes up with a hurtful criticism of Poland."

 

Deputy Foreign Minister Konrad Szymanski added: "The organization of the justice system belongs to the jurisdiction of member states."

Bochenek said, however, that Poland would be receptive to talks with Brussels.

 

CONFLICT

 

Duda's veto of the two bills followed a week of mass street protests by centrist and liberal Poles against the measures.

 

But Prime Minister Beata Szydlo said the government would not yield "to pressure from the street and abroad", signalling it would not abandon the plans.

 

Poland's right-wing government says the reforms are needed to streamline a slow, outdated legal system and make judges more accountable to the people. It has already tightened control of state media and took steps that critics said politicised the constitutional court.

 

Duda said on Monday he would present his own draft bills aimed at reforming the Supreme Council and National Council of the judiciary within two months.

 

The Commission says Warsaw's judicial reforms infringe not only its democratic constitution but also the legal foundations of EU treaties.

 

On Wednesday the Commission said it would send a formal letter of notice to Warsaw, the first step in a legal process that may end at the EU's top court, over the one law signed by Duda as soon as it is published in Poland's official journal.

 

Commission officials said previously that the Polish government's overhaul last year of the Constitutional Tribunal undermined its independence and the rule of law.

 

"It is time to restore the independence of the Constitutional Tribunal and to either withdraw the laws reforming the judiciary or bring them into line with the Polish constitution and with European standards on judicial independence," Timmermans said on Wednesday.

 

(Additional reporting by Pawel Florkiewicz, Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk and Pawel Sobczak; Writing by Jan Strupczewski and Marcin Goettig; Editing by Philip Blenkinsop and Mark Heinrich)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-07-27

 

 

[Laughing Gravy]

How dare the Polish make their own laws! Another fine example of the EU 'strong arm and do as we say' tactic. Thankfully the UK will be leaving. I will not be surprised if others follow. The EU establishment simply do not learn.

[trogers]

Why doesn't the EU either kick Poland out, or send their army into Poland to enforce their will?

[puck2]

1 minute ago, trogers said:

Why doesn't the EU either kick Poland out, or send their army into Poland to enforce their will?

The EU doesn't have an Army .

The EU is not the USA .

[puck2]

3 hours ago, Laughing Gravy said:

How dare the Polish make their own laws! Another fine example of the EU 'strong arm and do as we say' tactic. Thankfully the UK will be leaving. I will not be surprised if others follow. The EU establishment simply do not learn.

It's obvious, you don't know the reason why.

Please read more than the headline.

 

[trogers]

50 minutes ago, puck2 said:

The EU doesn't have an Army .

The EU is not the USA .

No army, then, kick Poland out of the EU. 

[Khun Han]

47 minutes ago, puck2 said:

It's obvious, you don't know the reason why.

Please read more than the headline.

 

 

And you in turn obviously don't understand what's going on. Poland wants to retain it's sovereignty on this major issue. The EU wants to take it.

[puck2]

1 hour ago, Khun Han said:

 

And you in turn obviously don't understand what's going on. Poland wants to retain it's sovereignty on this major issue. The EU wants to take it.

The same advice to you: read more than the headline.

 

As a hint, it concerns the 3rd power in a democracy.

Up to you, if you think "Poland wants retain its sovereignty".

 

 

 

[Khun Han]

32 minutes ago, puck2 said:

The same advice to you: read more than the headline.

 

As a hint, it concerns the 3rd power in a democracy.

Up to you, if you think "Poland wants retain its sovereignty".

 

 

 

 

And again, if you went beyond the headlines you would discover that the 'third power' in Poland is no such thing, and is mostly cronies of the old order, of which Donald Tusk is a member, and which the EU supports. The current government wants to redress this imbalance, and the EU is interfering in Poland's sovereignty to try and bully it into keeping the status quo.

[rockingrobin]

23 minutes ago, Khun Han said:

 

And again, if you went beyond the headlines you would discover that the 'third power' in Poland is no such thing, and is mostly cronies of the old order, of which Donald Tusk is a member, and which the EU supports. The current government wants to redress this imbalance, and the EU is interfering in Poland's sovereignty to try and bully it into keeping the status quo.

Khun Han , you are demonstating your ignorance on the subject

The polish government is trying to subjugate the independent judiciary, thus ministers will be able to fire and hire judges at their whim with impunity. Thus a judges career will depend upon how much favour they can cohort from ministers

[Khun Han]

1 hour ago, rockingrobin said:

Khun Han , you are demonstating your ignorance on the subject

The polish government is trying to subjugate the independent judiciary, thus ministers will be able to fire and hire judges at their whim with impunity. Thus a judges career will depend upon how much favour they can cohort from ministers

 

No, I'm not demonstrating my ignorance. The judiciary was put in place by the post soviet regime. It's populated by and perpetuated by cronies of that regime. The current government is trying to break that perpetuation.

[Retiredandhappyhere]

As the EU keeps telling the UK with reference to the Brexit negotiations, the 27 member Nations are "as one", although it already looks as if Poland will not even have a vote.  Watch out for more infighting when individual countries learn how proposed agreements with the UK either on various product categories which affect them, or on their future contributions. Some countries have already said that they will not accept any increase, so which countries will have to bear the additional burden?

 

Although unlikely, should Poland decide to leave the EU, or be thrown out, watch out for the domino effect.  At the very least, it cannot be said that the 27 member states are all speaking with one voice.

[rockingrobin]

25 minutes ago, Khun Han said:

 

No, I'm not demonstrating my ignorance. The judiciary was put in place by the post soviet regime. It's populated by and perpetuated by cronies of that regime. The current government is trying to break that perpetuation.

The Judiciary is put in via the NCJ , under the articles 186,187 of the 1997 constitution

[Khun Han]

Just now, rockingrobin said:

The Judiciary is put in via the NCJ , under the articles 186,187 of the 1997 constitution

 

Which is currently controlled by cronies of the old regime.

[rockingrobin]

9 minutes ago, Khun Han said:

 

Which is currently controlled by cronies of the old regime.

So you would have to include the current president of Poland and elected MPs

[Khun Han]

5 minutes ago, rockingrobin said:

So you would have to include the current president of Poland and elected MPs

 

You can look at it any way you want, but the Polish judiciary is currently self-perpetuating and is in the hands of cronies of the old regime. The current government is trying to address this problem.

[rockingrobin]

1 minute ago, Khun Han said:

 

You can look at it any way you want, but the Polish judiciary is currently self-perpetuating and is in the hands of cronies of the old regime. The current government is trying to address this problem.

Its nonsense

 

What it is about is rule of law and seperation of powers.

The judiciary needs to be seperate from the executive and legislative branch of government as it is supposed to hold them to account. The essence of this independence is impartiality and free from external interference

 

Such independence is re iterated in the right to a fair trial. 

[Khun Han]

28 minutes ago, rockingrobin said:

Its nonsense

 

What it is about is rule of law and seperation of powers.

The judiciary needs to be seperate from the executive and legislative branch of government as it is supposed to hold them to account. The essence of this independence is impartiality and free from external interference

 

Such independence is re iterated in the right to a fair trial. 

 

But in a country where there are already issues of political impartiality, radical surgery is required to correct the malaise. To use Thailand as an example, could you put your hand on your heart and state that the current corrupt judiciary is going to correct itself if left to it's own devices?

[stevenl]

6 minutes ago, Khun Han said:

 

But in a country where there are already issues of political impartiality, radical surgery is required to correct the malaise. To use Thailand as an example, could you put your hand on your heart and state that the current corrupt judiciary is going to correct itself if left to it's own devices?

To continue with your comparison, letting Prayuth in charge of the judiciary and have him fire and hire judges  at will is not the solution.

[Khun Han]

21 minutes ago, stevenl said:

To continue with your comparison, letting Prayuth in charge of the judiciary and have him fire and hire judges  at will is not the solution.

 

But the judiciary does Prayuth's bidding anyway. And the judiciary in Poland favours the old regime. Like I said, impartiality issues already exist.

[rockingrobin]

11 minutes ago, Khun Han said:

 

But the judiciary does Prayuth's bidding anyway. And the judiciary in Poland favours the old regime. Like I said, impartiality issues already exist.

Please expand, I fail to see how ministers having the ability to fire judges with impunity provides that impartiality, or the right of its citizens to a fair trial by an independent judge

[Khun Han]

54 minutes ago, rockingrobin said:

Please expand, I fail to see how ministers having the ability to fire judges with impunity provides that impartiality, or the right of its citizens to a fair trial by an independent judge

 

You also fail to see that, just as in Thailand, Poland's slanted judiciary needs an external reset, because it won't do it itself. But never mind.

[stevenl]

10 hours ago, Khun Han said:

 

You also fail to see that, just as in Thailand, Poland's slanted judiciary needs an external reset, because it won't do it itself. But never mind.

You fail to see this is not the reset required.

[rockingrobin]

12 hours ago, Khun Han said:

 

You also fail to see that, just as in Thailand, Poland's slanted judiciary needs an external reset, because it won't do it itself. But never mind.

I will point you towards to Turkey , and the actions carried out by Erdogan to quash a corruption enquiry

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/01/17/world/europe/turkey-prosecutors-in-corruption-inquiry-reassigned.html

 

[partington]

If a country does not have an independent judiciary it fails one of the essential tests of a democracy.

Only democracies can be part of the EU.  

 

Therefore abandoning a central pillar of democracy as it is defined by the treaties signed by all EU countries excludes the country from membership of the EU. Poland is being informed that it no longer fulfils the criteria for membership of the EU, and so action will be taken.

 

This is nothing to do with sovereignty, although if it was, the EU would still be in the right. Human rights trump sovereignty every time.

 

If I join an anti-fox hunting society, but spend my week-ends with the Berkeley Hunt, I would rightly be expelled. This is what is beginning with Poland.

 

EDIT: a more appropriate foxhunters' title

[Khun Han]

6 hours ago, stevenl said:

You fail to see this is not the reset required.

 

What reset do you suggest, and who will instigate it?

[Khun Han]

3 hours ago, rockingrobin said:

I will point you towards to Turkey , and the actions carried out by Erdogan to quash a corruption enquiry

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/01/17/world/europe/turkey-prosecutors-in-corruption-inquiry-reassigned.html

 

 

Whilst Thailand is not much like Poland, and it's judiciciary is in a much bigger mess, Turkey is as different again.

[puck2]

On 7/27/2017 at 7:01 PM, Khun Han said:

 

You can look at it any way you want, but the Polish judiciary is currently self-perpetuating and is in the hands of cronies of the old regime. The current government is trying to address this problem.

Concerning your comments, it's time to write new EU history books for schools and universities. It's a pity that most of the history scientists don't know that

"the Polish judiciary is currently self-perpetuating and is in the hands of cronies of the old regime"  (=Kaczynski's predecessors),  !

[pitrevie]

On 28/07/2017 at 1:56 PM, partington said:

If a country does not have an independent judiciary it fails one of the essential tests of a democracy.

Only democracies can be part of the EU.  

 

Therefore abandoning a central pillar of democracy as it is defined by the treaties signed by all EU countries excludes the country from membership of the EU. Poland is being informed that it no longer fulfils the criteria for membership of the EU, and so action will be taken.

 

This is nothing to do with sovereignty, although if it was, the EU would still be in the right. Human rights trump sovereignty every time.

 

If I join an anti-fox hunting society, but spend my week-ends with the Berkeley Hunt, I would rightly be expelled. This is what is beginning with Poland.

 

EDIT: a more appropriate foxhunters' title

Well stated nothing to do with overriding anyone's sovereignty, in fact the moment you sign a treaty you give a little and take a little. Poland wants to belong to the EU therefore it has to accept a common set of rules and the ECJ is there to ensure everyone plays by the same rules. Its why Turkish membership was never on the table.