EU triggers ‘nuclear option’ against Poland

Poland’s conservative government has called the EU decision “political”.

The so-called “article 7” is supposed to assure that all member states have “respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and human rights,” but it could potentially strip Poland of its voting rights in Brussels.

The European Commission has voted to trigger Article 7 against the country, which could eventually lead to sanctions too.

Poland judicial reforms would make it possible to fire Supreme Court judges. Member states must now decide by a two-thirds majority whether they agree with the Commission’s recommendation to trigger the “nuclear option”.

Hungary meanwhile has said it would block an EU move that requires the approval of all member states.

A non-member state, Turkey faces no such difficulties from Brussels about their human rights violations.

According to the EU’s website, Brussels is committed to paying Turkey €4.4539bn by 2020 as part of the Instrument for pre-Accession Assistance scheme, and it also promised to pay Turkey €3bn by the end of this year to deal with the migrant crisis.

This year alone, the EU has handed Turkey €636 million in so-called “pre-accession funding” aimed at preparing the country to eventually join the European Union.

Turkey is expecting at least €7.4bn by 2020 from EU coffers despite President Erdogan’s systematic dismantling the rule of law in the country, freedom of the press and political opposition.

In contrast, the democratically elected Polish government boasts record levels of public support, but Brussels is threatening to withhold funding.

The EU is more or less set to punish one of its own members for wanting to control its own legal system.

The decision was announced on 20 December. The EU has warned the country’s president, Andrzej Duda, to veto the two judiciary bills in question to save the country from the legal process, which the EU has never implemented until now.

Later the same day, the president announced that he had signed the judicial reforms into law. Duda signed into law two bills reforming the Supreme Court and the National Council of the Judiciary.

The new laws effectively put the Polish courts under the control of the governing party, Law and Justice. In signing them, the president defied a formal warning delivered only hours earlier by the European Union.