European Commission calls on Poland to improve its law
23:07
The European Commission is calling on Poland to fully implement EU law on several matters. Accordingly, a letter of formal notice was issued. The first is to combat racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law.
"The Polish criminal law framework does not correctly transpose the provisions on incitement to hatred by inciting racist and xenophobic violence and limits the scope of criminalization of incitement to hatred. Moreover, Poland has incorrectly transposed the provisions on the criminalization of specific forms of incitement to hatred, ignoring the blatant trivialization of international crimes and the Holocaust. limiting the criminalization of denial and approval of these crimes only to cases in which these crimes were committed against Polish citizens," the release reads.
Subsequent – quite important calls – deal with the strengthening of the presumption of innocence and the right to be present at the trial in criminal proceedings, protection of residents against air pollution, as well as Poland's full compliance with the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) regarding the Białowieża forest district.
Member States have two months to reply to the letter of formal notice, otherwise, the Commission may decide to send reasoned opinions.
In addition, the European Commission has decided to refer Poland to the Court of Justice of the EU for failing to fulfill its obligations under the noise directive.
