For the Polish government, a deadline set by the EU Commission in the conflict over the rule of law expired on Monday.

She had until midnight to explain to the Commission how she would comply with a judgment and an interim order from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to discipline judges.

Otherwise, the Commission had announced that it would apply to the ECJ for fines and grant power of attorney to the responsible Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders - a very unusual step.

Thomas Gutschker

Political correspondent for the European Union, NATO and the Benelux countries based in Brussels.

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By the afternoon, the letter from Warsaw had not yet arrived in Brussels, as a spokesman for the commission of the FAZ said.

But it was firmly expected that it would happen after the strong man of the government, the deputy prime minister and head of the PiS party Jaroslaw Kaczynski, signaled a relent at the beginning of the month.

As the speaker said, the text will be carefully analyzed;

a quick response is therefore not to be expected.

"We will dissolve the disciplinary body in its current form, and with that this issue will also disappear," Kaczynski told the Polish news agency PAP. However, it remained open whether there would be a new body and how this could be structured. The ECJ ruled in mid-July that the chamber set up by the Polish government at the Supreme Court violated Union law.

The Luxembourg judges complained that the chamber “does not offer all guarantees of independence and impartiality and is particularly not immune to direct or indirect influence by the Polish legislature and executive”. In addition, a conflict is simmering about whether the Polish constitution stands above EU law. A decision by the Polish Constitutional Court on this was postponed from August 3rd to August 31st.