Polish FM complains to Council of Europe over leaked report
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
02.03.2016 10:28
Poland’s Foreign Minister has complained to the Council of Europe that the leak of a draft report which contained a warning to Warsaw was used by the Polish opposition to “brutally attack the government for purely political reasons.”
Ehemaliger Außenminister Polens, Witold WaszczykowskiFlickr.com/worldeconomicforum
Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski’s comments came in a letter to Thorbjoern Jagland, the head of the Council of Europe. The Council’s Venice Commission, a constitutional watchdog, last month visited Warsaw to probe whether democratic standards are being upheld by Poland.
"I regret to say that the actions of the Venice Commission... have been unscrupulously used for political purposes,” Waszczykowski wrote.
He added: “My astonishment is all the greater because the President of the Venice Commission did not undertake an immediate response in the form of a statement condemning the leak and its use for political purposes.”
According to weekend reports in the Polish media, a draft report by the Venice Commission said that “as long as the situation of constitutional crisis related to [Poland’s] Constitutional Tribunal remains unsettled and as long as the Constitutional Tribunal cannot carry out its work in an efficient manner, not only is the rule of law in danger, but so is democracy and human rights.”
The Venice Commission is expected to adopt a final report by 12 March.
Krzysztof Szczerski, a senior foreign policy adviser to Polish President Andrzej Duda, has ruled out that the leak of the preliminary report came from the government in Warsaw, Polish Radio reported.
Szczerski added: “Perhaps this leak arose in order to make it impossible (for the Venice Commission) to change its position” in its full report.
(pk)
Source: PAP