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Warsaw hosts talks on rule of law amid European Commission probe

PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge 04.04.2016 08:54
Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjoern Jagland is in Warsaw on Monday amid a probe launched by the European Commission into the rule of law in Poland.
Poland's lower house of parliament. Photo: PAP/Marcin ObaraPoland's lower house of parliament. Photo: PAP/Marcin Obara

Jagland will be joined on Tuesday by Vice President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans.

Spokesman for Jagland Daniel Holtgen specified that talks will “inevitably” focus on the deadlock at Poland's Constitutional Tribunal.

On 11 March, human rights watchdog the Venice Commission, an arm of the Council of Europe, published recommendations concerning Poland's Constitutional Tribunal.

The commission urged Poland's ruling Law and Justice party to respect a 9 March ruling of the tribunal, which had itself rejected reforms to the court that were voted through parliament in December.

Meanwhile, the Venice Commission concluded that both the government and the opposition “should do their utmost to find a solution.”

The first cross-party talks on the matter were held on 31 March. Opposition MPs voiced mixed opinions following the session.

Jagland will meet with the President Andrzej Duda, Prime Minister Beata Szydło, Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski and Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro.

Public media

Meanwhile, Daniel Holtgen has also said that talks will be held with Poland's minister of culture and deputy prime minister Piotr Gliński on recent and prospective reforms to public media outlets.

Over the Christmas period – one month after the government was officially sworn into office - parliament passed an amendment to the law on public media, which among other matters, allowed the treasury minister to fire heads of public media branches, and senior managers.

Previously, appointments were made after competitions were held by Poland’s National Broadcasting Council.

In January, Law and Justice appointed its then deputy minister of culture, Jacek Kurski, as head of national broadcaster TVP, while also replacing the heads of Polish Radio and the Polish Press Agency, among other figures.

Since then, 126 employees of public media outlets have been dismissed or resigned.

The Law and Justice is preparing a second media law, aimed at carrying out further reforms. (nh/di/pk)

Source: PAP/IAR

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