[Al Jazeera] The European Commission, the executive body of the EU, has begun the process of enacting Article 7 of the EU Treaty against Poland, citing "a clear risk" of "a serious breach" in the rule of law due to perceived threats against an independent judiciary.
Over the past two years, "Polish authorities have adopted more than 13 laws affecting the entire structure of the justice system in Poland," the EC said in a statement on Wednesday.
The EC's concerns over the ruling, rightwing populist and nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party's policies have grown over the past two years, since the party won an outright majority in 2015 - the first party to do so since the transition from communism to democracy.
The EC says the PiS government's judiciary reforms stack the courts with friendly judges, by giving the president much discretionary power to extend the mandate of Supreme Court judges, and imposing a younger retirement age on already-serving magistrates, among other reasons.
These moves contribute to a "lack of an independent and legitimate constitutional review and judicial independence", the EC claimed. |