At its meeting of 19 Feburary 2019, the General Affairs Council dealt with the Article 7 TEU procedure concerning Poland and Hungary. Statements of Member States on the rule-of-law situation in these two countries were cautious. The Foreign Affairs Ministers of the EU Member States considered recent legislative changes with regard to the Supreme Court law in Poland to be a positive development, but the Polish authorities are still encouraged to address the remaining issues raised by the Commission.

The Article 7 procedure identifies a persistent breach of the EU’s founding values by a Member State; it can lead to the suspension of certain rights of the Member State. The procedure against Poland was opened by the Commission on 20 December 2017. The procedure against Hungary was initiated by the European Parliament on 12 September 2018. Since then, the Council has been dealing with the matter, but without concrete results to date.

Furthermore, the Commission launched infringement proceedings against Poland before the CJEU because of the Polish Supreme Court’s reform (see also eucrim 4/2018, p. 191 and 2/2018, p. 80).