Zbigniew Ziobro

European Council President Charles Michel spoke for many when he tweeted: "Now we can start with the implementation [of the budget and recovery package] and build back our economies."

Politicians from Poland's governing coalition have fallen back on the typical anti-German tropes to justify the veto.

Experts question, however, whether this is not just another propaganda stunt by Hungary's government.

Hungary's Justice Minister Judit Varga arrives for a meeting of EU General Affairs ministers at the European Council building in Luxembourg, 13 October 2020. EPA-EFE/VIRGINIA MAYO Pseudo-independent think tank?

Those three are Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska from the centrist Civic Coalition, Wladyslaw Kosianiak-Kamysz from the agrarian Polish People's Party and independent Szymon Holownia. 

Jitters in the PiS camp were confirmed by party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski himself during an interview published on February 26 by Gazeta Polska, a magazine considered friendly to the right-wing government. 

When the populist PiS first gained power in 2015, it was able to pass controversial justice reforms literally overnight. But the new balance of power means it will have to sweat a bit more to pursue a strategy widely condemned as an attack on judicial independence.

The European Commission has proposed to the EU Council to invoke Article 7 of the Lisbon Treaty, paving the way for sanctions against Poland and suspending some of the country's rights as an EU member.

The European Union has triggered Article 7 against Poland, a procedure that could result in sanctions targeting Warsaw, PAP news agency reports. The EU says Poland has violated democratic values with proposed judiciary reform.

The European Union's executive body use Article 7 of the EU treaty what is called a "nuclear option" against Poland on Wednesday.

The European Union announced Saturday it had launched legal action against Poland’s rightwing government over a new law that it fears will erode judicial independence.

Poland's justice minister dismissed an EU commissioner's criticism of new media regulations as "silly" in a confrontational letter that marked a low in the new government's relations with the bloc and the commissioner's home Germany.