EU official: unprecedented step warning Poland is likely

AP , Associated Press

Dec. 15, 2017 6:09 AM ET

BRUSSELS (AP) — A top European Union official says the bloc's executive Commission will decide next week whether to trigger an unprecedented procedure against Poland that could see the country lose its voting rights in the EU.

Olivier Matthys

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, left, arrives for an EU summit at the Europa building in Brussels on Thursday, Dec. 14, 2017. European Union leaders are gathering in Brussels and are set to move Brexit talks into a new phase as pressure mounts on Prime Minister Theresa May over her plans to take Britain out of the 28-nation bloc. (AP Photo/Olivier Matthys)

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The step has been discussed in reaction to new Polish bills overhauling the judicial system which the EU sees as a violation of fundamental European values.

EU budget commissioner Guenther Oettinger told Germany's Deutschlandfunk radio Friday: "Whether we will take this step, my colleagues and I will have to decide next Wednesday."

But he said "a lot speaks" for it happening, in what would be a first for the bloc.

Poland's new Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has been trying to persuade leaders at an EU summit in Brussels that the bills do not violate democratic values.

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	Dec. 15, 2017 6:09 AM ET
	BRUSSELS (AP) — A top European Union official says the bloc's executive Commission will decide next week whether to trigger an unprecedented procedure against Poland that could see the country lose its voting rights in the EU.