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EU Takes Swipe at Poland, Warns Romania on Erosion of Democracy

EU Takes Swipe at Poland, Warns Romania on Erosion of Democracy

(Bloomberg) --

The European Union’s executive arm warned governments about the need to uphold democratic standards and threatened a new lawsuit against Poland, highlighting how concerns about the erosion of rule-of-law in the bloc’s Eastern flank have risen to the top of the bloc’s agenda.

The European Commission published a policy paper on strengthening the rule of law in EU countries, pushing leaders to tackle the matter at a special May 9 summit in Romania on the bloc’s post-Brexit future. It also took the first step in a possible legal challenge to a Polish disciplinary regime for judges, and warned Bucharest’s government about undermining its judiciary.

“The union’s capacity to uphold the rule of law is essential -- now more than ever,” Frans Timmermans, principal vice president of the commission, said in an emailed statement in Brussels.

Scrutiny of democratic standards within the EU has moved up the bloc’s agenda steadily for two decades as policy makers have sought to tackle a discrepancy between the norms demanded of aspiring members and those enforced on existing ones.

The issue has gained urgency in recent years as pushes in Hungary, Poland and Romania for greater political control over state institutions have sparked fears in the EU of a shift toward authoritarian rule that communism’s collapse in eastern Europe more than a quarter century ago was deemed to have ended.

Hungary and Poland have been forced by the rest of the EU into a special oversight process that, in the worst-case scenario, could lead to the suspension of their voting rights in the bloc. Separately, the EU has drafted legislation that would create a link between future payments from the European budget to member countries and their respect for the rule of law.

Romanian Reforms

Romania, which is in hot water with the EU over its persistent efforts to roll back progress on tackling corruption, was urged on Wednesday to act quickly to put reforms back on track.

“In particular, I want to warn over any governmental actions that would disrupt the Romanian judicial system by creating a systemic de facto impunity for high office holders who were sentenced for corruption,” Timmermans said. “Such a move would compel the commission to act swiftly.”

The EU regulatory arm sent a warning to Poland over disciplinary procedures that are part of a broader judicial overhaul. Warsaw created a panel with judiciary oversight and started disciplinary proceedings against dozens of judges who criticized the increased influence of politicians over courts.

“The new disciplinary regime undermines the judicial independence of Polish judges by not offering necessary guarantees to protect them from political control, as required by the Court of Justice of the European Union,” the commission said.

The Polish government has two months to reply, after which the commission could issue a final warning before filing a lawsuit. The country has argued that the EU has no jurisdiction to police member states over how they set up their judiciary.

--With assistance from Irina Vilcu.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ewa Krukowska in Brussels at ekrukowska@bloomberg.net;Jonathan Stearns in Brussels at jstearns2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, ;Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net, Richard Bravo, Peter Chapman

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.