Taking (Fundamental) Rights Seriously
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Is Europe witnessing, as Pech, Wachowiec and Mazur fear, ‘the end of the rule of law in Poland?’. Recent developments seem to suggest so. Although concerns about the country’s respect for the rule of law have been raised for several years – the EU’s rule of law framework was first adopted against Poland in January 2016 –, 2020 saw an acceleration of the country’s rocky road to authoritarianism. The consequences stretch far beyond Warsaw, and pose a grave threat to the European Union.
Poland’s assault on the judiciary
It was recently reported that the Higher National Court in Karlsruhe has suspended the execution of a European Arrest Warrant (EAW), issued against a German citizen, due to concerns about Poland’s judicial independence. Only a decade ago, this would have made for striking news. Yet the points raised by the German court – the recent changes to the Polish judiciary, the substantial concerns surrounding the