Controversial Legislation Signed By President Amid

“It is important for President [Duda] that public media should be impartial, objective and reliable…”

In an indication of the seriousness of the issue, a discussion of rule of law in Poland has been added to the agenda of the weekly meeting of European Union commissioners in Brussels next Wednesday.

Another new law affects Poland’s top constitutional court and critics have accused the PiS government of eating away at democratic principles in the EU’s largest eastern economy, which joined the bloc in 2004.

An aide to Polish President Andrzej Duda says that he has signed the controversial law giving the government control of state broadcasters, despite the concerns of the European Union. Of more immediate concern in Brussels, however, are recent political developments in Poland.

On Tuesday, the Council of Europe human rights commissioner Nils Muiznieks appealed to Duda not to sign the law.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, right, greets European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker upon his arrival at the Maritime Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016.

The media bill, which comes into force once it is officially published, will see the termination of the terms of the management and supervisory board members of the TVP state broadcaster, Polish Radio and the PAP news agency.

“I have contacted the Polish foreign minister (Witold Waszczykowski) on the importance we attach to a dialogue… that it does not become a confrontation in the EU”, Koenders told The Associated Press. No one forgets however that the real power within the European Union lies with the member states, and there is no guarantee that a commission’s recommendation to trigger the rule of law mechanism would be endorsed by a sufficient number of countries.

The optimists underline that, contrary to Hungary’s Fidesz party, the Law and Justice party does not belong to the European People’s Party-the biggest political group in the European Parliament-but to the eurosceptic and Tory-dominated European Conservatives and Reformists Group.

On January 13, the European Commission will risk a lot. No one doubts that the commission’s margin of maneuver is narrow.