The EU agreed Wednesday to launch hearings later this month into fears Poland is breaching the independence of its courts, officials said, as Warsaw moved closer to possible unprecedented sanctions. The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said it had asked the 28 member states to hold a formal hearing after Poland's rightwing government had failed to allay its concerns.
"Most of the member states supported the request by the commission," a spokesperson for Bulgaria, which holds the bloc's six-month rotating presidency, told AFP. The official said ambassadors from the EU countries agreed Wednesday the first of several hearings will take place on June 26 when European affairs ministers meet in Luxembourg. Brussels in December triggered so-called article seven proceedings against Poland over "systemic threats" to the rule of law, which could eventually see Warsaw's EU voting rights suspended.
European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said his dialogue with Polish authorities, which began two years ago, had yielded some progress recently. But legislative changes adopted in Warsaw since April in a bid to solve the row "are not sufficient to eliminate the clear risk of a serious breach of the rule of law," Timmermans told the European Parliament.
Poland's rightwing Law and Justice (PiS) government began making changes to the judiciary after coming to power in late 2015. It says the reforms are needed to combat corruption and overhaul the judicial system still haunted by the communist era.
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