Poland signs court revamp into law, defying European Union’s sanction threat

Bloomberg

Poland defied the European Union’s unprecedented call for member states to punish it for failing to uphold the bloc’s values, signing into law a judicial overhaul that puts the country at risk of economic sanctions and losing its voting rights.
President Andrzej Duda announced the decision, hours after the European Commission said the government in Warsaw posed a threat to the rule of law by putting courts under political control and recommended triggering Article 7 of the EU treaty. The process is unlikely to lead to Poland being shut out of decision making. But, backed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, it underscores the erosion of trust between the bloc’s largest states and some of its eastern members.
After years of juggling crises including Greece’s debt saga and the worst migration emergency since World War II, EU leaders are turning their attention to the rise of populist forces that reject the bloc’s values. The decision is a shot across the bow for governments such as Hungary’s, where Prime Minister Viktor Orban has cal-led for rolling back the liberal framework underpinning the world’s largest trading club.
“Within a period of two years, a significant number of laws have been adopted, which put at serious risk independence of the judiciary and the separation of powers in Poland,” said Frans Timmermans, principal vice president of the commission. “The commission can now only conclude that there’s a clear risk of a serious breach of the rule of law by Poland.”
The disciplinary decision, while damaging to Poland’s reputation, was expected by investors after Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said his country wasn’t going to budge. The zloty lost 0.1 perc-ent against the euro, though remains this year’s second-best performer among emerging-market currencies.