Protest against changes in the judicial law and the Supreme Court in front of the Sejm building in Warsaw EPA
Bill submitted by the ruling
Law and Justice party (PiS) passes in parliament's lower house after
three days of debate and protests
The President of Poland has
been urged to veto a bill passed by lawmakers in the country that would give
parliament the power to appoint Supreme Court judges.
Guy Verhofstadt, the President
of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe in the European
Parliament, has called on President Andrzej Duda to take action and said
the European Commission should trigger the EU’s Article 7 if the issue is not
resolved.
The Article has been often
described as a “nuclear option” and can lead to the suspension of a member
country’s voting rights.
“The European Parliament made
it clear earlier this week that these new laws are incompatible with EU
Membership and would irredeemably weaken Poland’s future place in the West,” Mr
Verhofstadt said.
He also took to Twitter to
claim the "blitz against Polish judiciary [was] completed".
Blitz against Polish judiciary
completed: law on #SupremeCourt
adopted. President Duda must veto it, otherwise let's trigger #Article7
European Council President
Donald Tusk, who is also a former Polish prime minister, called for an urgent
meeting with President Duda to discuss the "political crisis" in the
country.
Mr Tusk described the move as
backwards backward and said it went "against European standards and
values”.
"The European Union is
not only money and procedures. It is first and foremost values and high
standards of public life. That is why a wave of criticism of the government is
rising in Europe and in the whole West," Mr Tusk said.
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