EU Tells Poland To Roll Back Judicial Reform, Issues One-Month Ultimatum
UK’s Nigel Farage slams the EU for ‘Soviet-style bullying’ of Poland and Hungary
In a drastic move that would further exacerbate the European Union’s east-west divide, the European Commission, the EU executive arm, has given a month’s notice to the Polish government to roll back its national judicial reform. Poland risks forfeiting its voting rights within the EU if it does not back down in the current dispute with Brussels.
The EU officials oppose the legal reform undertaken by Warsaw, arguing that it weakens the judiciary and gives more power to the country’s elected government. Polish government dismissed these allegations and insists that is acting within the purview of the national constitution.
The EU has already threatened Poland with legal action for opposing a pan-European migrant resettlement plan. Poland, along with Hungary and Slovakia, has refused to back the EU plan to relocate hundreds of thousands of migrants across Europe.
British newspaper Daily Express reported the details of the EU ultimatum:
The ultimatum comes after months of increasingly ill-tempered wrangling with European Union chiefs growing increasingly exasperated with Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party and its refusal to soften its stance.
The Commission, along with many EU governments and rights advocates, insist changes to Poland’s judicial system undermines the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law. (…)
In its latest statement, Brussels said: “The Commission has carried out a thorough analysis of the response of the Polish authorities to the Letter of Formal Notice sent in July 2017 and finds that its concerns have not been adequately addressed and therefore has moved to the next stage of the infringement procedure.
“The Polish authorities have one month to take the necessary measures to comply.
“If the Polish authorities do not take appropriate measures the Commission may decide to refer the case to the Court of Justice of the EU.”
The Commission had earlier warned Warsaw it would face an even more severe disciplinary response if it tried to remove any judges from the country’s Supreme Court.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel also slammed the Poland’s conservative government over the issue, calling the proposed Polish legal reform “a serious issue”. “We cannot simply hold our tongues and not say anything for the sake of peace and quiet,” Merkel said at a press conference last month.
With deteriorating ties between the two countries, a Polish parliamentary body is preparing legal grounds to demand compensation from Germany for deaths and losses suffered during the second world war. The legal report to this effect was published by the Warsaw-based parliamentary research service on Monday.
The Merkel government has rejected the Polish claims on grounds of an existing agreement on the waiver of reparations signed between West Germany and Poland’s Communist Regime in 1953. “German government has no reason to question to the validity of the Reparations Waiver of 1953,” Merkel’s spokesman said last week. The bitter tussle over reparations once again highlights the fresh east-west schism opening up in Europe after the end of the Cold War.
East European countries have emerged as the staunchest opponents of the EU’s open borders policy and Brussels creeping encroachment on their national sovereignty.
British politician and former UKIP leader, Nigel Farage, lambasted the European Commission’s President Jean-Claude Juncker for initiating hostilities against Poland and other East European countries. “The way you are treating Poland and Hungary already must remind them of living under the Soviet Communists with your attempts to tell them how they should run their own countries,” Farage said in his address to the EU Parliament yesterday.
Watch: UK’s Nigel Farage tells EU chief Juncker, “You’ve learned nothing!” (September,13 2017):
[Cover image via YouTube]
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Comments
Would the “drastic move” exasperate or exacerbate the EU’s east-west divide?
Give Vijeta a break, Whittaker.
Poland should tell the EU to go rotate.
Time for Polxit! LOL.
These are the same geniuses who
– insisted in weakening the military’s independence – and ability to stage a coup – in Turkey in order to strengthen democracy as part of a path to joining the EU (that’s never gonna happen)
That move thereby removed the one bulwark to dismantling
the secular state previously established under Ataturk and let Erdogan pick off all the other civil institutions at his leisure. Creating a dictatorship for life in Turkey
– insisted on intervening in Libya, helping create the current migrant crisis in Italy in particular and creating a permanent terrorist pseudo-state not so many miles from Europe
I could go on, but their judgment on where to intervene in other country’s affairs is riddled with disaster after disaster.
I don’t know the details on the Poland judicial situation, but overall I expect them to add one more stupid intervention to the list.
Because that is there track record.
Look, Poland, you got out from under the thumb of one Totalitarian Socialist Regime. You don’t need to spend as long under this aspiring Totalitarian Bureaucracy.
Invoke Article 50.
Whether it’s the Velvet Revolution, the Solidarity Movement, or even as far back as the Hungarian Revolution, Eastern Europe wrestled mightily with politbureau tyranny, and eventually threw off its shackles.
Now, under the dictates of Germany’s Mutter Merkel, the EU continues with its own bully tactics from Brussels to rule over the continent via unelected bureaucrats.
The UK viewed such tyranny from across the Channel and finally said, ‘No more!’ last year.
” Poland risks forfeiting its voting rights within the EU if it does not back down in the current dispute with Brussels.”
Under these current conditions that does not sound like much of a threat.
I predict Poland & Hungary will continue to remember their history under the boot of a politbureau bully, and this East-West divide will eventually split the EU into more pieces.
Hopefully, the Bear will not be strong enough to re-swallow those pieces.
Europe would be better off if it joined Poland and told Brussels to closely investigate those places where the sun does not shine.
LOL. Good’n.
One would think that the Europeans would have learned from the history of the lat 120 years. Anytime you allow Germany to be a position of power in Europe, the rest of Europe becomes its vassals. Its deja vu all over again.
Ya, but the German ‘payback’ is being hand delivered by hundreds of thousands if Muslim invaders, who just happened to be supporters of Uncle Adolf! The Muslims KNOW how to put a civilization under it’s heel and the Germans deserve it more than many. Sadly the German race will be transformed into something recognizable, but justice isn’t always instant.
AS For The Poles, they have a chance to stand strong without yielding to either Russia or the EU. Hopefully they’ll play their cards wisely and not follow their European brethren.
Now if England and Poland were smart, they should start some independent talks for trade, post Brexit. Might give Brussels some pause if both of them started talking.
Poland yawns, and withholds exports of delicious pierogis.
Bigos for me, please, and an Okocim
Legit lol for this one!
Ummmm……how does ‘No’ sound?
As an old school American, the very idea of an external entity ordering my country to do anything leaves me as cold as Charleston Heston’s bones.
“it weakens the judiciary and gives more power to the country’s elected government”
I’d say that was a good thing.
“migrants”
Why do you insist on censoring the relevant facts?
The issue is the mass invasion of Muslims.
How can you even begin to discuss an issue, much less actually find a solution for it, if you refuse to even identify what that issue is?
Like it or not but Poland do everything the right way. The EU can’t tell us or some other members to do something that may bring us nothing but troubles. If the divorce is the only option, well, Poland is ready and we can create a union of countries from Eastern Europe that support Poland and ready to join the new alliance. Now Europe doesn’t have a reliable leader and Poland can take that role, because we are the best example of a country that has its own opinion and we are ready to defend our rights and right of countries that share our position.
Go Poland!
And thus the seeds of the EU’s collapse and break up were sown.
This is the problem with the EU, their unwillingness to negotiate!
All they had to do was allow the UK to control its borders but no, not negotiable with the end result being the UK is now leaving the EU.
Again, all thats required here is a willingness for the EU to allow countries to control their borders but again…no deal which is only pushing countries like Poland closer to leaving!
Extortions don’t make for good negotiations…and that’s all Brussels is good at, extortion with intimidation.
Polish jokes used to be all the rage.
But look who are the jokes now.