Within just three months after its election, the Polish Government has taken an alarming authoritarian turn that involves:
1. Crippling the functioning of its constitutional court by illegally disqualifying a substantial number of its judges, and

2. Speedily pushing through a media reform that renders directors of public TV and radio directly responsible to the Government by changing the appointment procedure and depriving the supervisory council of its powers.

Making use of the ‘pre-Article 7' rule of law mechanism for the first time since its adoption, the Commission is set to launch an investigation.

Considering the confidential nature of the dialogues between the Commission and the Member State concerned, how is the Commission going to communicate its findings to Parliament?

Is there a specific timeline envisioned for the three main procedural stages? In particular, are there any deadlines governing the issuance of a Commission opinion, the issuance of a Commission recommendation in the event of non-compliance, and the ‘follow-up' stage in which the Commission determines whether to initiate the article 7 procedure or not?

Given that there is, to date, no clear definition of the notion of ‘systemic threat' to the rule of law, the Commission is asked to explain the criteria used, and to clarify how a systemic threat is different from a ‘systemic violation' in this case.