MEPs travel to Poland to assess respect of EU values

An EP delegation will travel to Warsaw next week to look into the rule of law situation in Poland, in the framework of the ongoing Article 7 procedure. Ten MEPs from the Civil Liberties and Constitutional Affairs committees will be in Poland from Monday 21 to Wednesday 23 February.

During their visit, in addition to long-standing concerns related to the rule of law, MEPs will look into institutional questions arising from the Polish Constitutional Court’s recent decision that national constitutional law takes primacy over the EU Treaties.

The delegation has requested to meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Deputy Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński, and the Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro. They have also scheduled exchanges of views with representatives of political parties both in the Sejm and the Senate, as well as with the National Council for the Judiciary.

As the independence of the judiciary is one of the main concerns regarding rule of law in the country, MEPs will also have meetings with professional associations of judges, prosecutors and lawyers, individual judges and prosecutors affected by disciplinary or criminal proceedings, and former members of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Tribunal.

(WBJ)