WARSAW, July 5 (Xinhua) -- The Polish government will respond by the Aug. 2 deadline to the European Commission (EC)'s call for irregularities to be removed from the contested Supreme Court (SN) law, Deputy Foreign Minister Szymon Szynowski vel Sek said on Thursday in the Sejm, or the Polish parliament's lower house.
On Monday, the Commission launched disciplinary procedures against Poland over aspects of its Supreme Court law, due to which, it says, as many as one in three SN judges face the risk of being forced to retire early.
"The EC launched a final-stage procedure calling on the government to remove the transgression," Polish Press Agency quoted Szynowski vel Sek as saying. "It is not, as some have tried to claim, suing Poland before the EU Court of Justice. It is an element of the first procedure and within its framework as a first step the EC has given the government until August 2 to respond."
Szynowski vel Sek said the Polish government would provide a response within the deadline indicated by the EC, adding that it's not yet possible to say what that response would be.
According to EC, in the issue concerning the SN, the Polish rules lack criteria by which the Polish president is to decide which judges' term to prolong, should they request a prolongation. In addition, according to the EC, there is also no possibility for courts to examine that decision.
The Commission believes that this breaches the principle of judicial independence, and as such Poland fails to fulfill its obligations under the EU treaty.
