MEPs call on EU countries to wait for Poland's rule-of-law reform

MEPs also called on national capitals to only approve the recovery plan once Poland has implemented previous rulings of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on scrapping the disciplinary regime for judges, and reinstating dismissed judges.

EU finance ministers are expected to also give their approval to the Polish plans on 17 June.

However, lawmakers stopped short of adopting a proposed amendment by the Greens to censure the commission if it disburses recovery funds to Poland before the conditions on the judiciary have been fulfilled by Warsaw.

On Tuesday, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen tried to calm nerves in the European Parliament where MEPs questioned the EU executive on its decision on the Polish recovery fund.

Von der Leyen pledged not to disburse funds before Poland delivers on the first two of three conditions: abolishing the disciplinary chamber for judges, reforming the disciplinary regime.

The third condition, reinstating unlawfully dismissed judges should be done by the end of 2023, the commission said.

MEPs nevertheless said, the commission did not go far enough.

200 new judges

Lawmakers said that judges should be reinstated immediately based on the ECJ's previous ruling. The resolution notes that more than 200 new judges have been nominated by Poland's president Andrzej Duda.

"What the commission did was a mistake," said German Green MEP Terry Reintke in a statement after the vote.

"It should be self-evident for every member state to abide by the rulings of the ECJ," she added.

In the meantime, a proposal to overhaul the disciplinary chamber has been stuck in the Polish parliament. According to critics, those plans are not going far enough to remove the possibility of political interference.

"What is important for us is the final law, that will be then signed by the president, coming into force," Eric Mamer, commission spokesman, said on Thursday.