WHILE Britain is obsessed with Brexit and Article 50, Brussels is increasingly more concerned about whether they’ll need to invoke Article 7 on Poland, where the right wing government is moving further away from democracy.
The EU could take the unusual steps of placing sanctions on a member state, after the ruling Law and Justice party passed a series of bills through the county’s lower house proposing sweeping changes to the judiciary.
If passed by the upper house at a vote later today, and then signed by President Andrzej Duda, a former Law and Justice member who became independent when he was elected to the top job, then it will, effectively, end the independence of the courts.
One of the bills will grant the government power to force the 15 judges in Poland’s supreme court to resign.
Another bill, already passed and waiting for the president’s signature, will put ultimate control of who will replace them into the hands of parliament.
Duda has expressed some apprehension, which led to the government to tweak the proposals, meaning it now takes a three-fifths majority in parliament to choose new judges, rather than a simple majority. The government says the reforms overhaul an inefficient, outdated and unfair judicial system.
Critics say the proposals blurs the independence of the judiciary and erodes the country’s democratic institutions.
Thousands have taken to the streets in protests.
If the EU uses Article 7 of the Lisbon Treaty, it will strip Poland of all voting rights.
“Each individual law, if adopted, would seriously erode the independence of the Polish judiciary,” said Frans Timmermans, First Vice President of the European Commission.
“Collectively, they would abolish any remaining judicial independence and put the judiciary under full political control of the government.”
It will, however, be difficult for the EU to take action, as it requires the backing of all member states, and Hungary’s right wing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has already said he will veto any attempt to sanction the Law and Justice government.
Three former Polish presidents, including Lech Walesa, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, who led the Solidarity movement that helped overthrow communism, have been critical of the government’s plans.
The Law and Justice Party were elected with a narrow majority in 2015, and started almost immediately dismantling some of Poland’s state machinery.
Supporters of the party now control public television and radio, the secret services, and the Constitutional Tribunal, which rules on the constitutionality of legislation and the actions of state bodies.
The government has also imposed restrictions on public meetings.
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