Poland Summons EU Official as Spat Over Judiciary Escalates

(Bloomberg) -- The conflict between Poland and the European Union over democratic principles escalated overnight as the bloc’s highest official in Warsaw was summoned to the Foreign Ministry.

Following an “unacceptable comment” by EU Commission spokesman Christian Wigand, the head of the commission’s office in the country was summoned to a meeting at the Polish Foreign Ministry on Saturday morning, Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski said on Twitter late yesterday.

“The EU is a community of law and can’t passively watch threats against judges,” Marek Prawda, head of the commission’s office in Poland, told reporters after the meeting, which lasted less than 30 minutes. He said the discussion was constructive and also involved the details of next week’s visit by EU Commission Vice President Vera Jourova to Poland.

Wigand said on Friday that the commission was “very concerned” about the state of Poland’s democracy after the government rejected a Supreme Court decision striking down its judicial overhaul. He also questioned legitimacy of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal - a court dominated by ruling-party nominees, including several former lawmakers.

The eastern European country is facing legal disarray after more than a dozen court-system changes in the past four years. The revamp has left judges unsure about their ability to issue verdicts and brings the validity of thousands of cases into question.

From Friday: EU Worried as Poland Plunges Into Legal Chaos, Zloty Weakens

Jourova will on Tuesday meet with Polish government officials, the speakers of both houses of parliament, the Supreme Court President Malgorzata Gersdorf and ombudsman Adam Bodnar as the EU hopes dialog with Poland over the issues will continue, Prawda said.

“There’s a dispute in Europe about the limits of intervention by EU institutions; we believe that the judiciary is a domain of a sovereign state,” Polish Deputy Premier Jaroslaw Gowin told Radio RMF on Saturday. “In our view, the European Commission is going beyond the Lisbon treaty.”

(Updates with comments from EU official from third paragraph.)

To contact the reporter on this story: Marek Strzelecki in Warsaw at mstrzelecki1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, Lars Paulsson, James Amott

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