WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- The European Commission said Wednesday it is keeping the door open to triggering sanctions against Poland for limiting judicial independence, despite the Polish president's surprise decision to veto parts of a controversial legal overhaul.
"In this past week in Poland some things have changed and some things have not," Frans Timmermans, the vice-president of the European Commission, said at a news conference in Brussels. The Commission is the executive arm of the European Union.
Timmermans said the Commission was giving Poland one month to resolve all the problems in its judicial overhaul — though it was not clear what would happen if Poland does not do so.
In a comment to the PAP news agency, Polish government spokesman Rafal Bochenek said Poland would not accept the "blackmail." Konrad Szymanski, deputy foreign minister, said the Commission's doubts were unfounded and that Poland has the right to decide on how to organize its justice system.
The conservative ruling Law and Justice party took steps soon after winning power in 2015 that have gradually reduced the ability of the Constitutional Tribunal to act as a check on the party's power. This month it took its shakeup further when lawmakers passed three bills putting the rest of the court system under ruling party control.
Law and Justice, under the leadership of Jaroslaw Kaczynski, says the courts are inefficient and corrupt and need deep change. While most Poles agree, many people saw a power grab and turned out by the tens of thousands to stage nightly candlelight protests.
President Andrzej Duda, long loyal to the party, surprisingly announced Monday that he would veto two of the bills, including one that would have allowed the justice minister to immediately dismiss any of the Supreme Court judges. But he signed a third bill giving the justice minister power to name all the heads of lower courts in the country.
Timmermans said he welcomed Duda's rejection of the two bills. But he said that other parts of the judicial overhaul, including the earlier takeover of the constitutional court, "increase significantly the systemic threat to the rule of law."
"Our recommendations to the Polish authorities are clear," he said. "It is time to restore the independence of the Constitutional Tribunal and to either withdraw the laws reforming the judiciary or bring them in line with the Polish Constitution and with European standards on judicial independence."
He also said any legal acts that lead to the dismissal or forced retirement of Supreme Court judges would lead the Commission to "immediately" act to issue a formal warning to Poland which could result in Poland losing its voting rights.