The “starting point” to end Poland’s constitutional crisis is for the government to respect the verdicts of the country’s Constitutional Tribunal, a top European Commission official said in Warsaw on Tuesday.
The remarks from Frans Timmermans, first vice president of the European Commission, were a rebuke of the ruling Law and Justice party. The government has refused to publish a March verdict of the tribunal, worsening the legal showdown that has drawn international attention to Poland.
But Timmermans said a solution is still possible.
He met with Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski as well as Andrezj Rzepliński, the tribunal’s president, and said he was “encouraged” by the atmosphere.
“I did get the feeling today that there is room for dialogue and room for finding a solution without the European Commission having to take any next steps,” he said.
But the government must first follow the tribunal’s verdict, Timmermans said. “The starting point of the dialogue should be full respect for the rulings of the constitutional tribunal — rulings that in my view should be published and implemented.”
He is due to present a report soon to his fellow commissioners in Brussels. The Commission in January launched an unprecedented probe into the new government’s legal and media reforms, which have raised concerns whether Poland is breaching the EU’s rule of law principles.
On Monday, Thorbjørn Jagland, head of the human rights watchdog Council of Europe, started a two-day trip to Poland dealing with the same issues and meeting with top officials including President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Beata Szydło.
Thorbjørn Jagland, head of the human rights watchdog Council of Europe | Georg Hochmut/EPA
Jagland warned that unless the crisis is resolved, Poland risks a lawsuit in the European Court of Human Rights.
The council’s legal body, the Venice Commission, issued a report last month rebuking the government over its recent actions against the tribunal, warning that “crippling” the court’s effectiveness would undermine democracy and the rule of law.
Part of the dispute is over who gets to be on the 15-judge court.
The new government, elected in October, refused to recognize three judges elected by the previous parliament and instead elected its own judges, who have been sworn in by Duda but who haven’t been allowed to take seats on the tribunal.
The other dispute is over deep changes to the rules governing the functioning of the court pushed through parliament in December. Those rules make it possible to remove judges, set a minimum quorum of 13, change the definition of a majority needed for a verdict from half to two-thirds of judges and take away the tribunal’s ability to choose cases, insisting they be taken up in chronological order.
The tribunal ruled on those legal changes last month and found them unconstitutional, but the government has refused to publish or to respect that decision, saying it is invalid because the judges weren’t following the procedures set up on the disputed law.
Another test comes Wednesday and Thursday, when the tribunal meets to decide several cases. However, that session again will not meet the requirements set out in the disputed regulation.
Zbigniew Ziobro, the justice minister, called the upcoming session a “fiction” and said his ministry wouldn’t be participating.
That could bring the country to the brink of legal chaos, as the tribunal may issue verdicts that some lower courts consider binding and others do not. Investors are already wary of such a situation.
“Poland is facing heightened political risk as a result of its constitutional crisis. These developments may impair Poland’s attractiveness for foreign investors, a credit negative,” Moody’s, the credit rating agency, warned this week.
Poland has also come under pressure from the United States. In a brief meeting in Washington during a nuclear summit last week, President Barack Obama discussed the constitutional crisis with Duda.
The government is aware of the negative foreign and domestic publicity generated by the standoff.
Last week, Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of Law and Justice and Poland’s most powerful politician, called a meeting of fellow party leaders to look for a compromise. However, he hasn’t wavered from his position on the tribunal, and opposition leaders continue to stick with their stance that the only way forward is for the government to buckle and obey the verdict.
“I don’t see any chances or possibility of a compromise with the stance presented by Chairman Kaczyński,” said Grzegorz Schetyna, head of the opposition Civic Platform party.