Informal EU summit to debate next budget

A “significant” number of EU countries have come out in favour of linking pay-outs of EU funds with the state of the rule of law in member states, Poland’s PAP news agency reported, citing a European Union source it did not name.

Row with Brussels

Warsaw has been locked in a row with Brussels about the rule of law and separation of powers in Poland.

The European Commission 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 judicial system by the country’s ruling conservatives.

The move means that the EU’s executive wants the bloc’s member states to declare the rule of law in Poland is under threat.

Poland’s investment and development minister has said his country, and many others, are against a move to tie pay-outs of EU funds with the rule of law situation in member states.

‘We see a clear problem’

Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Konrad Szymański said ahead of Friday’s informal EU summit: "We see a clear problem in terms of how the level of implementing values ​​such as democracy and the rule of law is to be measured.

“We do not have one indicator here, as in the case of a budget deficit... in terms of the state of democracy, the independence of the judiciary, we do not have such an indicator.”

Poland's governing Law and Justice (PiS) party has said sweeping changes are needed to reform an inefficient and sometimes corrupt judicial system tainted by the communist past, accusing judges of being a self-serving clique often out of touch with the problems of ordinary citizens.

But opponents have accused Law and Justice of aiming to stack courts with its own candidates and to dismantle the rule of law.

(pk)

Source: IAR/PAP