30/03/2017 Monitoring
Yves Cruchten (Luxembourg, SOC) and Thierry Mariani (France, EPP/CD), co-rapporteurs on ‘The functioning of democratic institutions in Poland’, will make a fact-finding visit to Warsaw from 3 to 5 April 2017.
The co-rapporteurs will focus on the general political developments and the state of democracy (including electoral reform), the reform of the Constitutional Court and the judiciary, media reform and freedom of assembly and expression.
Meetings (to be confirmed) include the President of the Republic, the Presidents of the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Tribunal and the National Council of Justice, the Minister of Culture, the Undersecretary of State of the Minister of Interior, representatives of the Chancellery of the President and of the Prime Minister and high-level officials of the Ministry of Justice. The will also meet with the leadership of parliamentary political parties, the association of judges and the bar association as well as the National Broadcasting Council.
Following a motion presented in February 2016 by 22 Assembly members, the Bureau asked in May 2016 the Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to prepare a report on ‘The functioning of democratic institutions in Poland’. One month later, the Committee appointed Mr Cruchten and Mr Mariani as co-rapporteurs. This is their first fact-finding visit to the country in the framework of their mandate.