Poland plans new tweaks to judicial laws to end row with Brussels: reports

Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz on Thursday briefed the deputy head of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, on planned new amendments to disputed laws regulating the work of the country's court system, according to Poland’s PAP news agency.

The planned modifications apply to regulations governing assistant judges and a contested procedure that allows “extraordinary appeals” for reopening closed court cases, PAP reported.

Officials in Warsaw hope these modifications will prove to be enough for the EU executive to withdraw its Art. 7 procedure against Poland, PAP said.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the 28-nation European Union, in December took the unprecedented step of triggering Article 7 of the EU Treaty against Poland, stepping up pressure on Warsaw over controversial changes to the justice system by the country’s ruling conservatives.

The move meant that the EU’s executive wanted the bloc’s member states to declare that the rule of law in Poland was under threat. That could potentially pave the way for sanctions being imposed on Poland.

But the Polish government has since moved to modify the disputed legal changes that set it on a collision course with Brussels.

Timmermans told reporters after meeting Czaputowicz in Brussels on Thursday that, while the European Commission had not yet reached an agreement with Warsaw over disputed legal changes, the talks were heading in the right direction.

Poland's Czaputowicz said: “I can’t say there was a breakthrough, but I can say that the dialogue continues."

(gs/pk)

Source: PAP