Warsaw: Poland's foreign ministry yesterday dismissed the EU's latest warning that changes to the country's constitutional court pose a serious challenge to the rule of law.
Warsaw called the opinion "groundless", a day after the European Commission gave Poland's rightwing government another two months to reverse changes to the court or face sanctions. Government spokesman Rafal Bochenek immediately responded that "Poland no longer has any problems with the constitutional court" and "saw no reason for the European Commission to get involved".
Since coming to power last year, the governing Law and Justice (PiS) party has changed the way the court operates -- including the order in which cases are heard and how the chief justice is chosen -- and has put forward its own judges instead of those approved by the previous parliament.
Critics say the reforms undermine judicial independence and the system of checks and balances. They cite other PiS bids to consolidate power including moves to increase state control over public broadcasters.
Clashes over the judicial reforms have given rise to demonstrations by a new popular movement, the Committee for the Defence of Democracy. On Wednesday, Polish President Andrzej Duda named a PiS-backed judge, Julia Przylebska to head the constitutional court. She succeeds Andrzej Rzeplinski, whose was considered a symbol of resistance in the growing feud.
Her appointment was made possible by a parliamentary reform that Rzeplinski blasted as unconstitutional. The foreign ministry said in its statement that following Przylebska's nomination, "we consider the political dispute around the court to be over". But it added: "That being the case, we consider it all the more groundless that the Commission has maintained its view that there is a systematic threat to the rule of law in Poland."
The Commission, the EU's executive arm, had already in July handed Poland a three-month deadline to reverse changes to the court or face sanctions.
