Venice Commission: Poland still hindering Constitutional Tribunal

Poland has failed to ensure the independence of the Constitutional Tribunal (TK), European law experts said on Friday as an EU deadline approaches for the government to respond to charges that it has made the country less democratic. The EU has given Poland’s government until the end of this month to amend legal changes, which it says make the TK subservient to the executive and parliament. Poland could be suspended from voting on EU law, something that has no precedent and would require the consent of all the other 27 member states. The Venice Commission, a panel of law experts at the Council of Europe, said in a non-binding opinion that the changes Poland had made so far were “too limited in scope.” Polish law continued to “delay and obstruct the work of the Tribunal, possibly making its work ineffective, as well as undermining its independence,” the Venice Commission said.