Venice Commission probing democratic standards in Poland

The European Commission last month launched an inquiry into whether Poland is upholding the principle of the rule of law and whether controversial legislation pushed through by the country's new Law and Justice (PiS) government violates EU standards.

Brussels has said it will work closely with the Venice Commission, which includes experts in constitutional and international law, in assessing developments in Poland.

During a two-day visit to Warsaw, Venice Commission delegates are to meet President Andrzej Duda, judges and officials from the foreign ministry and the justice ministry.

But MPs from the opposition Civic Platform (PO) are unhappy that no separate meeting has been scheduled between them and Venice Commission delegates.

Sławomir Neumann of the PO said: "We would like to give the commission a real picture of the situation in Poland."

Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski in December asked the Venice Commission for an opinion on legal amendments to the Constitutional Tribunal pushed through by the Law and Justice (PiS) party, which came to power in October.

The changes sparked street protests across Poland and criticism that PiS was undermining democracy, a charge it has rebutted.

Poland’s previous parliament, dominated by the Civic Platform (PO) party, elected five new tribunal judges in early October. PiS claimed such a move by an outgoing government was unfair.

After PiS won a landslide victory in the country’s 25 October elections, the new parliament chose a different set of five tribunal judges, who were promptly sworn in by President Andrzej Duda, a former member of PiS.

The Constitutional Tribunal later ruled that two of the five judges elected under PO had been chosen unconstitutionally, but the three other choices were constitutional.

The Council of Europe is an international organisation which aims to uphold human rights, democracy and the rule of law, and is a separate body from the EU. (pk)

Source: Polish Radio