Poland summons EU official as spat over judiciary escalates

Bloomberg

The conflict between Poland and the European Union over democratic principles escalated overnight as the bloc’s highest official in Warsaw was summoned to the Foreign Ministry.
Following an “unacceptable comment”
by EU Commission spokesman Christian Wigand, the head of the commission’s office in the country was summoned to a meeting at the Polish Foreign Ministry, Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski said on Twitter.
“The EU is a community of law and can’t passively watch threats against judges,” Marek Prawda, head of the commission’s office in Poland, told reporters after the meeting, which lasted less than 30 minutes.
He said the discussion was constructive and also involved the details of next week’s visit by EU Commission Vice President Vera Jourova to Poland.
Wigand said that the commission was “very concerned” about the state of Poland’s democracy after the government rejected a Supreme Court decision striking down its judicial overhaul.
The eastern European country is facing legal disarray after more than a dozen court-system changes in the past four years. The revamp has left judges unsure about their ability to issue verdicts and brings the validity of thousands of cases into question.
Jourova will on Tuesday meet with Polish government officials, the speakers of both houses of parliament, the Supreme Court President Malgorzata Gersdorf and ombudsman Adam Bodnar as the
EU hopes dialogue with Poland over the issues will continue, Prawda said.
“There’s a dispute in Europe about the limits of intervention by EU institutions; we believe that the judiciary is a domain of a sovereign state,” Polish Deputy Premier Jaroslaw Gowin told Radio RMF.
“In our view, the European Commission is going beyond the Lisbon treaty.”