Polish PM hands white paper on court reforms to EU officials

Mateusz Morawiecki was speaking in Brussels after meeting top European Union officials -- European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker and deputy head Frans Timmermans -- to whom he handed the new document, called the “White Paper on the Reform of the Polish Judiciary.”

Morawiecki said the document would also be forwarded to all EU member countries.

Poland's governing Law and Justice party has argued that sweeping changes are needed to what it claims is an inefficient and sometimes corrupt judicial system tainted by the communist past.

The white paper is a government document that provides comprehensive information on why Poland’s justice system needed to be reformed, Morawiecki told reporters in Brussels, “because all the random, fragmentary and partial information -- I think everyone realises -- is incomplete and does not offer a full picture of why these changes were necessary."

Morawiecki told reporters that the white paper, which details the specific features of the Polish justice system, would also be sent to all members of the European Parliament.

He has previously said that the document was designed to provide “a legally sound, thorough analysis” of the Polish government’s “position towards all of [Brussels’] recommendations and reservations.”

Meanwhile, commission spokesman Margaritas Schinas said on Thursday that a three-month deadline set for Poland to meet recommendations made by the European Commission in December had not changed.

At the end of last year the commission took the unprecedented step of triggering Article 7 of the EU Treaty against Poland, stepping up pressure on Warsaw over contested reforms to Poland’s courts by the country’s ruling conservatives.

According to the Polish Prime Minister’s Office, the government's white paper says that there is no risk of the Supreme Court in Poland being subjected to political influence and that a dispute over the country’s Constitutional Tribunal has come to an end.

The document also says that Polish judges have strong guarantees of independence, the PAP news agency reported.

(gs/pk)

Source: PAP