We are glad that there is a great improvement in the relations between the European Commission and Poland, Bulgaria’s Deputy Prime Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva said at a press conference after the morning session of the EU General Affairs Council meeting on 27th of February. Zaharieva chaired the meeting.

She noted that the participants in the meeting encouraged the continuation of the dialogue with Warsaw. Ministers were aware of the EC's proposal to trigger Art. 7 of the EU treaty against Poland, which provides for withdrawal of the voting rights in the discussion of joint decisions.

The situation is different today with the change of the Polish prime minister, we have a dialogue, but that would be productive only if results are achieved, Vice-President of EC, Frank Timmermans, commented. He specified that the EC's proposal for action against Warsaw has received broad support at the Council of the EU.

Timmermans clarified that the independence of the judicial system is an integral part of ensuring the rule of law. We do not question the right of EU countries to organize their judicial systems, but the need to reform the system is never an excuse to impose political control and the removal of independence, he said. The Commission proposed the activation of Art. 7 due to the changes in the law in Poland, related to the functioning of the justice system.

Timmermans said the EC does not intend to present a similar proposal against Romania because the dialogue with Bucharest is within the frames of the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism. He added that he will visit Romania next week. Timmermans urged the Romanian authorities to go through the "last session of the marathon" under the CVM mechanism so that the commission can fulfill its intention to remove the monitoring reports. There is no deadline for dropping out of the mechanism, this does not happen by itself, Romanians have to implement EC recommendations, he added./ Bulgarian National Television

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