The European Commission has announced it is taking the first steps to close the Article 7 procedure against Poland.
The special supervision has been ongoing since 2017 over the country’s systematic breaches of fundamental values and the continued erosion of judicial independence. As a result, Poland has been compelled to appear in regular hearings before the other member states and account for its progression – or regression – in the field.Only Poland and Hungary have ever been subject to Article 7.The announcement, made unexpectedly on Monday, determines there is no longer a “clear risk of a serious breach of the rule of law in Poland.”However, the decision needs the validation of member states before the legal text that activated the procedure in 2017 can be formally withdrawn. A meeting of European affairs ministers is scheduled for later this month, suggesting the conclusion will arrive soon.”Today, marks a new chapter for Poland,” said Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission. “It is the result of their hard work and determined reform efforts.”The breakthrough represents a political victory for Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who, upon coming into office last year, made the reset of Warsaw-Brussels relations a top priority for his pro-European executive.Tusk’s government presented in mid-February an “action plan” of nine draft laws specifically designed to restore judicial independence from the country’s highest tribunal to the most ordinary courts. It also made commitments to abide by the rulings of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and respect the primacy of EU law.The overture paid off quickly: by late February, the Commission unblocked €137 billion in recovery and cohesion funds that Poland had been denied due to its democratic backsliding and lack of judicial guarantees to protect the bloc’s finances.By April, Warsaw received its first payment of €6.3 billion in grants and loans.The “action plan,” though, aims higher than financial gains: its ultimate goal was to bring Article 7 to a close and relieve Poland from the bad name that comes with it.Justice Minister Adam Bodnar, who has spearheaded the concentrated push, wanted the announcement to coincide with the country’s 20th accession membership on 1 May. Bodnar has also acknowledged that the restoration is a work in progress and more needs to be done in terms of legislation.Despite barely missing the self-imposed deadline, the news is set to be warmly greeted across Poland as an opportunity to turn the page on the years-long confrontation with Brussels and put the Eastern nation firmly back into the mainstream.The clash began after Law and Justice (PiS), a hard-right, Eurosceptic party, came to power in 2015 and introduced sweeping reforms that rearranged the structure of courts, cut short the mandate of sitting judges and promoted party-friendly appointees.The Commission fought hard against the overhaul, which, in its view, severely damaged Poland’s judicial independence, hindered the correct application of European law, left investors unprotected and endangered cooperation with other member states.In December 2017, Brussels determined there was a “clear risk of a serious breach of the rule of law” in the country and triggered Article 7, a radical option that in its last stage can lead to the suspension of voting rights. (This, however, never happened.)”Judicial reforms in Poland mean that the country’s judiciary is now under the political control of the ruling majority,” the Commission said back then.Undeterred by the procedure, the PiS-led government moved ahead with its plans and later passed a controversial reform that empowered the disciplinary chamber of the Supreme Court to punish magistrates according to the content of their rulings.The Commission launched legal action, which led to interim measures that Poland blatantly disobeyed. In turn, the ECJ slapped a €1 million daily fine, which was in place until the tribunal struck down the reform in June 2023.Jakub Jaraczewski, a researcher at Democracy Reporting International who has closely followed the Warsaw-Brussels dispute, described Monday’s news as a “much-delayed funeral of Article 7″ and highlighted the procedure’s inherent weakness.”Reliant on the political will of member states and with its most potent sanction requiring a practically unattainable unanimous agreement in the Council, Article 7 never got anywhere it promised to go, which was to ensure that EU values are respected by all member states,” Jaraczewski told Euronews.
Source: euronews.com