The European Commission is set to launch an audit of Poland’s adherence to the rule of law this coming week, focusing on the government’s much-criticized crackdown on judicial independence.
German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported Sunday that the Commission will investigate changes to Poland’s constitutional court. Sources told the FAZ that Commission chiefs of staff described the situation in the court as unbearable in their Friday meeting, referring to President Andrzej Duda’s failure to swear in three judges whose election was approved by the Constitutional Tribunal and instead swearing in five judges chosen by the current parliament.
The Commission is set to launch its investigation on Wednesday, to be led by First Vice President Frans Timmermans, whose dossier includes issues related to the rule of law. This would be the first time the Commission would use this type of audit procedure since it was adopted in 2014.
“The college [of commissioners] will hold an orientation debate on Wednesday on the situation in Poland and the rule of law mechanism,” a Commission spokesperson told POLITICO, while declining to comment directly on the FAZ article as well as Friday’s chiefs of staff meeting. “Any further steps will depend on the outcome of that debate.”
Brussels could eventually recommend sanctions on Poland, including a temporary loss of voting rights in the Council. But diplomats from several EU countries expressed caution last week about condemning Warsaw too harshly.
The Commission’s VP Frans Timmermans will lead the audit (EPA)
Next step after the launch of the investigation is an assessment of whether there are indications of a “systemic threat” to the rule of law in Poland. For that, the Commission will rely on the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe, which is preparing a report on the matter, according to the FAZ. The report is due in March but could be ready earlier.
If it finds signs of a systemic threat, as a next step the Commission would send a “rule of law opinion” to the Polish government.
The focus on judicial independence is an indication the Commission sees little point in investigating Poland’s new media law, a policy area in which the EU has less of a say. A letter from Timmermans to the Polish government before the media law was passed called on Warsaw to ensure that any changes not threaten media pluralism, but indicated that the Commission had little legal standing to intervene.
The Polish foreign ministry responded Friday to Timmermans’ concerns about the media law, saying the new government recognizes “the freedom and pluralism of the media.”
Poland will not send its representative to this week’s discussion at the Commission, Europe Minister Konrad Szymański told the Polish Press Agency.
“The hearing is not open to outside guests so there is neither the possibility nor a special reason [to attend],” he said.
However, Poland will send information to the Commission ahead of the debate. “It is important to us that the debate on the subject of Poland is factual and does not take place in an atmosphere of conjectures and generalities which can sometimes lead to unnecessary political tensions,” he said.
Szymański said there is a lot of incorrect information about the steps the Polish government has taken with regards to the Constitutional Tribunal. Critics say the measures pushed through at the end of the year hobble the court by making it much more difficult for it to rule that legislation violated the constitution.
The debate “will be a good opportunity for the commissioners to build up a more ordered view on the subject of what is happening in Poland,” he said.
Szymański added that neither Prime Minister Beata Szydło nor other members of the government plan to be present when the European Parliament debates Poland on January 19.
“It appears to me that this is neither the time nor the occasion for the Polish prime minister to become involved, but we will be engaged in the information side,” he said.
The Polish government insists that the legal changes it has passed in the last weeks are no threat to the country’s democratic credentials.
Zbigniew Ziobro, the justice minister, sent a bristling letter Saturday to Günther Oettinger, the German digital economy commissioner who had raised questions about the new Polish media law which tightens the government’s control over public radio and television. The commissioner threatened to activate the bloc’s ‘Rule of Law mechanism’ and to place Warsaw under monitoring.
“These type of words, spoken by a German politician, create the worst possible connotations among Poles,” Ziobro wrote. “Also for me, as the grandson of a Polish officer who during the Second World War fought in the underground Home Army against ‘German Oversight.’”
Ziobro went on to criticize the German media’s tentative approach to the sexual attacks in Cologne over New Year’s, saying their caution “stunned the world.”
“I came to the sad conclusion that it’s easier for you to talk about fictitious dangers to the freedom of the press in other countries that than denounce censorship in your own homeland,” Ziobro wrote.
The fuss around Poland’s legal changes is straining relations with Germany. Witold Waszczykowski, Poland’s foreign minister, summoned the German ambassador for a meeting on Monday afternoon to complain about recent comments by German politicians.
The reason is “anti-Polish statements that contradict the facts,” Artur Dmochowski, the foreign ministry spokesman, told Poland’s TVN television. He mentioned a comment Sunday by Martin Schulz, the German president of the European Parliament, who compared the policies of Poland’s new right-wing government to Russia’s Vladimir Putin, warning it could lead to the “Putnization of European politics.”
Florian Eder contributed to this article.