It’s wrong to claim EU Commission has been silent on Poland’s law changes

Kenny Macaskill in his column on 29 March 2018 (“Stop treating Catalonia as a proxy for Scotland”) wrote that “the EU Commission has been silent as Hungary and Poland have lurched to the right and invoked laws that are shameful of European values”.

The European Commission has not been silent – on Poland at least. On 20 December 2017, after almost two years of relatively low-key dialogue with Poland, the Commission lost its patience, found its voice and loudly called out Poland for its contravention of the “rule of law” values enshrined in Article 2 of the EU Treaties.

On 20 December 2017 the Commission announced that it had “concluded that there is a clear risk of a serious breach of the rule of law in Poland” and set in hand a series of measures against Poland which could result in the suspension, under Article 7(3) of the EU Treaties, of Poland’s voting rights in the European Council. The measures the Commission is taking against Poland are unprecedented in the history of the EC/EU.

The Commission’s view is that Poland’s “judiciary is now under the political control of the ruling majority”, that there is a “clear risk of a serious breach of the rule of law in Poland” and “in the absence of judicial independence, seriousquestionsareraisedabout the effective application of EU law” – including “the execution of European Arrest Warrants” – one of the issues raised in Kenny Macaskill’s column.

The Commission set out a list of actions that needed to be taken by Poland to address the issues raised; and gave Poland three months to respond. The deadline expired on 20 March 2018 and further developments are awaited. In a complementary development, the Commission has also referred Poland to the European Court of Justice for breaches of EU law in relation to the appointment and mandate of Judges.

JOHN A MACINTYRE OBE

Willowmead Close

Woking, Surrey