EU executive dismisses Poland’s defence of contested judicial overhaul

BRUSSELS: The European Union executive on Tuesday dismissed Poland´s latest defence of court reforms that critics say weaken democracy, potentially paving the way for more clashes with Warsaw after weeks of some rapprochement.

Poland, the biggest ex-communist EU state, stands accused of subjecting its courts to more government control since the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party won power in late 2015. The bloc has threatened unprecedented punishment, including of suspending Warsaw´s vote, if Poland does not restore the checks and balances. The Commission´s deputy head, Frans Timmermans, debated the matter with EU ministers meeting in Brussels after Poland published a "white paper" defending the judicial changes. Warsaw says it was led by the need to improve efficiency and accountability by removing judges who served under the post-World War Two communist government, whose rule came to an end in 1989.The Commission has given Poland until Tuesday to restore the rule of law, or risk proceedings under the so-called Article 7 punishment mechanism.

Warsaw has until the end of the day to come up with a formal answer to that. While it said it would reply by the end of the day, sources also said Warsaw just would point the European Commission and the other member states to its "white paper".

This, however, would not be enough, Timmermans said, saying the document just repeated again what Warsaw has already said before, but offered no ways out of the impasse. "There was agreement across the table that this white paper is not the answer to the Commission´s recommendations," Timmermans told a news conference after sitting down with EU ministers. "If this idea that you have the right to reform the judiciary...is understood as the right to put it under political control, then we have a problem.