From the DW:
"EU urges Poland to respect judicial reforms deadline or face Article 7 sanctions"
Tuesday is the last day Poland has to respond to Commission demands that it restore the rule of law or face proceedings under Article 7. But according to Polish reports, it has no intention of changing its laws. The European Commission on Tuesday urged Poland to respond to its demands of restoring law and order before a midnight deadline. Poland faces punishment under the never-before-used Article 7 of the European Union for placing courts under political control. "The Polish have time until the end of today to come with their response. I do expect them to do that," Timmermans told a Brussels news conference after the meeting. "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." "Talking for talking's sake is not enough and I hope that today ... will give a clear signal that EU members support the European Commission in this essential matter," Germany's EU minister Michael Roth said. Polish European Affairs Minister Konrad Szymanski said he hoped member states would assess Warsaw's white paper in an "objective, unbiased, individual way," adding that Poland did not want a "passive duplication of someone else's opinion" among EU members.
Final hours: Tuesday is the last day Poland has to respond to Commission demands that it restore the rule of law or face proceedings under Article 7. Never used before: Article 7, which had previously never been activated since its establishment in the 1999 Treaty of Amsterdam, allows the EU to punish members that seriously breach the EU's founding values. The multi-step process requires unanimous approval of the 27 member states other than Poland to pursue sanctions. However, member state Hungary has vowed to veto the move to strip Poland of its EU voting rights, which would stall the process.
Growing isolation: If the threat of Article 7 fails to reign in Poland's reforms, it could additionally face the loss of billions of euros in funding in bloc's the next long-term budget from 2021. Poland is currently the biggest beneficiary of EU handouts for infrastructure and other projects.
Controlling the courts: A series of laws introduced by Poland's Law and Justice (PiS) has granted the government significant control of the judiciary including the power to hire and fire judges.
Next meeting: The Commission will meet again next month to assess whether "steps forward were made or not."
^ The EU has a major problem and has for many years: the EU member-states in Eastern Europe tend to feel they are over-shadowed by the EU which is run by Germany and France. Even when Eastern European countries became full-fledged EU member countries they were discriminated against from the very beginning by many Western EU member states (quotas on how many could come live and work, etc.) There was no "freedom of movement" for many eastern EU member states for many years after joining. Poland is one of those Eastern European countries that feels this way and so I don't believe they will take the EU's threats or punishments without a fight. I'm not saying that Poland is right or wrong in this, but am merely showing that there is a huge divide between the western EU and the eastern EU. The fact that at least Hungary (if not more Eastern European EU member countries) will side with Poland and thus negate any official response from the EU - since all other EU member countries have to agree - shows that the EU doesn't really know want it is doing or how to fix the numerous issues that is making it a weak organization. Until the EU treats all of its member countries the same and there is no "us vs. them" (ie. western EU vs. eastern EU mentality) then the EU will not be a true union of Europe. ^
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