BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st October, 2021) Poland's concession to the EU to dissolve the Supreme Court's disciplinary chamber does not mean that Poland will give in to the EU on all requirements, but indicates the country's willingness to negotiate, experts told Sputnik on Wednesday.
Poland made the decision to dissolve the disciplinary chamber of the Supreme Court as demanded by the European Union, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on October 19.
The EU demand was made in July over concerns that its activities threaten the independence and impartiality of judges, further exacerbating already tense relations between national authorities and the EU.
"The dispute is so huge that the concession with respect to the judicial responsibility of judges in Poland is not perceived immediately as an important step forward by Poland," Professor Michel Liegeois, head of the Crises & International Conflicts Study Center of UCL University in Belgium, said.
Professor Liegeois believes that it is very probably a gesture made to appease Brussels, but Poland's government will have to go further in order to make a deal.
"I would not say that Poland will have to capitulate. It will be a negotiation. Warsaw has support in neighbouring countries," Pierre Vercauteren, Professor of Political Science at UCL University said.
However, the main reason for the quarrel between Brussels and Warsaw is the latter's decision to revise the prioritization of domestic legislation. On October 7, the Polish Constitutional Court ruled that the country's basic law takes precedence over EU law, after Brussels criticized Warsaw for a series of judicial reforms. This step is considered both by experts and by top EU officials as a threat to the bloc's legal order, calling into question its very foundation.
"The ruling does pose a major problem to the EU. The reason is that throughout its history, the Court of Justice of the EU (in the early years called the 'European Court of Justice') was supreme in areas where the EU has legal competence. It gives the EU legal system order. If national laws are out of step with EU law on these areas in which the EU has competence, then the national laws could be adjusted," Dr. Amy Verdun, professor of political science in the University of Victoria, told Sputnik.
Against the backdrop of the crisis in Warsaw-Brussels relations, voices talking about the possibility of Poland's exit from the EU are growing louder.
"Poland certainly can leave the European Union if it wants to. Great Britain has shown that it is possible, and if a country like Poland wants it to happen, it can happen," William S. Bike, expert in government, politics, and history, told Sputnik.
However, according to Bike, Polish anti-EU forces would have a hard time getting a majority or plurality to go along with such a plan.
A recent poll, carried out by SW Research, showed that 64.5% of Poles would still vote to join the EU if a referendum were held this year, while only 16.2% would oppose membership.
