The EU on Wednesday criticized Poland’s lack of progress on judicial reforms, adding fuel to the already fiery relationship between Warsaw and Brussels.
The European Commission raised “serious concerns” about the independence of the Polish judiciary in its annual report on the rule of law, noting that the country ignored most of the EU’s recommendations from the previous year.
With less than six months to go until Poland’s tightly contested elections, where the nationalist government risks losing power after eight years in office, the report will shed a harsh spotlight on the tensions between Warsaw and Brussels under the ruling Law and Justice party.
Already, Brussels is withholding billions from Warsaw in a long-running rule-of-law dispute — a fight the Polish government has tried to spin to its political advantage but that nonetheless presents domestic challenges. There’s also a looming battle between the two over a recent migrant relocation deal Poland has vowed to boycott.
In its report, the Commission pointed out that there has been “no progress” from Poland on six recommendations, including judicial independence, media freedom and lobbying rules. The EU’s executive also renewed calls to separate the functions of the justice minister and the prosecutor-general, and it backed the introduction of stricter lobbying and anti-corruption rules.
But the report’s recommendations did not mention Poland’s recent — and controversial — law designed to curb Russian influence, which the EU and others have warned could instead be used to intimidate political rivals. The reason, said a Commission official, is that the issue is under review by the Court of Justice of the EU.
“For the moment, we’re only saying what are concerns about the situation in Poland,” said EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders, who did not entirely rule out freezing more EU funds for Poland if the situation gets worse.
Poland has taken steps to try and appease Brussels. In January, the Polish government adopted the first stage of a bill aimed at rolling back some judicial reforms, hoping to unblock €36 billion in frozen EU post-pandemic cash.
Reynders indicated that connecting monetary payouts to rule-of-law reforms is prompting EU countries to carry out the bloc’s recommendations, citing Hungary as another example. Like Poland, Hungary is wrestling with Brussels to unblock frozen EU funds.
“This has also been the case with Hungary where the recommendations issued last year have been translated into milestones under the recovery and resilience plans,” the commissioner said.
Hungary’s hard-right government recently passed a reform to strengthen the autonomy of its Supreme Court in the hope of unfreezing over €13 billion in EU funds.
Wednesday’s report welcomed this development but noted that the country still lags behind on media independence, anti-corruption laws and lobbying rules.
The Hungarian government issued a strongly worded rebuke to the Commission’s criticism.
“Hungary is under attack because we do not join the pro-war group,” government spokesperson Zoltan Kovacs wrote on Twitter. “We do not want migrant ghettos. We refuse to abolish the utility cost reduction program.”
Reynders also singled out Spain for a reprimand. The EU’s report noted that Madrid achieved “no progress” on half of its recommendations from last year. It urged the government to strengthen the independence of the prosecutor-general and bolster the autonomy of the General Council of the Judiciary, which oversees Spain’s courts and judges.
More broadly, however, EU Vice-President for Values and Transparency Věra Jourová said the situation was improving. She stressed that there has been “no major backsliding” in any EU country and added that almost two-thirds of the Commission’s recommendations in 2022 were adopted by member states.
