Timmermans meets Szydło in Warsaw

Deputy head of the European Commission Frans Timmermans made a last minute trip to Poland on Tuesday, where he met Prime Minister Beata Szydło, in a bid to solve the dispute around the Constitutional Tribunal. At a joint conference after the meeting, the prime minister said that she has had "constructive dialogue" with the EC executive. "I informed Mr Timmermans of the direction in which we will be moving and what changes we will be proposing." "We talked about solving the constitutional court crisis. The government of Poland has proposed means, which fulfill all the necessary conditions to end the dispute... to let the Constitutional Tribunal function more transparently," Szydło said. The Prime Minister added that solving the crisis is Poland's internal matter, but the government is always open for dialogue with the European Commission. Frans Timmermans stated that "conflict can only be solved in Poland, but it is in Europe's interest for it to be resolved." "The EC will do whatever it can to support all parties to end the conflict and to solve the matter," he added. Last week the European Commission  set a deadline until May 23 for the government of Poland to make significant progress on solving the crisis. Failing to do so would result in the EC issuing a critical opinion, which would launch the second stage of the rule of law procedure on Poland. But on Monday, a commission spokesman referred to an "ongoing and constructive discussions with the Polish authorities” and said it was not sure that the report would be adopted. The talks in Warsaw further pushed away the date for the opinion to be issued.