EU official: unprecedented step warning Poland is likely
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}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.
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."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}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.