Irish court must decide if Polish judicial system allows a fair trial

The ultimate decision could signal that Polish courts no longer function as a normal part of the EU’s justice system.

A suspected drug dealer will have to prove that Poland’s judicial system is so flawed that he will not be able to get a fair trial if he is extradited from Ireland to his home country, an advocate general of the European Court of Justice said Thursday.

The opinion was issued after the Irish High Court reacted to a Polish arrest warrant by turning to the ECJ to determine whether Polish courts, subjected to deep and controversial reforms by the ruling Law and Justice Party, preclude suspect Artur Celmer from getting a fair trial in Poland. Polish authorities were very critical of the Irish court’s decision to involve Europe’s highest court.

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The eventual ECJ decision is potentially explosive: If it finds that the Irish court does not need to obey a Polish extradition request, it would signal that Polish courts no longer function as a normal part of the EU’s justice system — dealing a blow to the ruling party.

The advocate general’s opinion was very carefully worded, finding that the Irish court has to determine not only that the Polish justice system is flawed, but that in Celmer’s specific case, it would harm his right to a fair trial.

“The executing judicial authority is required to postpone the execution of a European arrest warrant only where it finds not only that there is a real risk of flagrant denial of justice on account of deficiencies affecting the system of justice of the issuing member state but also that the individual concerned by the warrant will be exposed to such a risk,” said the opinion issued by Advocate General Evgeni Tanchev.

The advocate general’s opinion is often, but not always, followed by the court when it makes its ruling.

The issue of the arrest warrant dovetails with broader EU concern about the direction  of the Polish justice system. Brussels launched an Article 7 proceeding against Poland that could result in the country losing its voting rights as an EU member — although the chances of such an outcome are remote as Hungary has promised to defend Poland.

In parallel, the European Commission is proposing beginning an infringement procedure against Poland over breaches to the EU’s principles of rule of law.

The country was probed by EU ministers over its judicial reforms on Tuesday, with Polish officials explaining that their steps fall within the bounds of EU legal norms and insisting that Warsaw will not backtrack.

The Commission intends to keep pursuing the matter.

“Let me be very clear: The systemic threat for the rule of law persists,” Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans said at a news conference following the hearing before the General Affairs Council in Luxembourg.

Actress-singer, and atmospheric science expert, Barbra Streisand declared on Monday that President Donald Trump should be the first “climate denier” removed from office.

“Last week it was 114 in Paris and Guadalajara was buried in 3 feet of ice from a hailstorm,” Barbra Streisand said in a tweet, linking to a Washington Post article about the hail storm that left the Mexican city of Guadalajara under several feet of snow over the weekend. “Climate change is here now and it is time for voters to remove the climate deniers from office. Starting with Trump.”

Missing from Streisand’s sermon — and, oddly the Washington Post piece — was any context or facts about hail storms, specifically that they are quite common during the summer months.

Writing in Forbes, Dr. J. Marshall Shepherd, Director of the University of Georgia’s (UGA) Atmospheric Sciences Program, points to a study by climatologist Stan Changnon, Jr. to explain why location, perfect conditions, and timing all helped create the atmosphere for the hail storm that hit Guadalajara:

To be clear, Washington Post writers Jason Samenow and Jeff Halverson noted that Guadalajara’s elevated location made it ripe for such a storm:

Barbra Streisand is perhaps to busy shedding tears over Hillary Clinton’s election loss to realize she’s guilty of denying science.

Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson

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Rocker David Gilmour auctioned 120 instruments from his massive guitar collection for a $21 million windfall that the former Pink Floyd frontman is donating to fight global warming.

Christie’s auction house hosted the auction, the largest guitar sale the seller ever held.

Gilmour’s auction haul will be donated to liberal activist group ClientEarth, a non-profit organization dedicated to environmental law, according to NBC News. On its Facebook page, ClientEarth claims that it works to “combat climate change” and also to “defend habitats and wildlife.”

After the auction, David Gilmour took to his Twitter account to tell fans about his reasoning for the donation.

“We need a civilized world that goes on for all our grandchildren and beyond in which these guitars can be played, and songs can be sung,” Gilmour tweeted on Wednesday. “The global climate crisis is the greatest challenge that humanity will ever face, and we are within a few years of the effects of global warming being irreversible.”

“One of the 126 items sold at the auction was Gilmour’s “Black Strat” guitar, which he reportedly used to record “Dark Side of the Moon.” The item was expected to sell for around $150,000, but ended up selling for almost $4 million.”

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.

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Vestager: ‘I do work with tax and I am a woman’

Record fine against Google has nothing to do with ‘personal feelings,’ says EU competition chief.

Europe’s competition czar Margrethe Vestager on Wednesday hit back against Donald Trump’s claim she “hates the U.S.,” following the announcement of a record €4.3 billion fine against American search giant Google.

“Your tax lady, she really hates the U.S.,” the U.S. president told European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker at the G7 meeting in Canada last month, referring to major penalties imposed by the European Commission on U.S. companies for regulatory and tax violations.

“I’ve done my own fact-checking on the first part of that sentence, and I do work with tax and I am a woman, so this is 100 percent correct,” Vestager told reporters. But the second half of the sentence is “not correct,” she added, saying: “I very much like the U.S.”

The Commission fined Google €4.3 billion Wednesday for antitrust violations related to Android, its popular mobile operating system, in what marks a significant step in Vestager’s yearslong investigation into the U.S. search giant. Critics have accused her of unfairly targeting U.S. tech firms, possibly in an attempt to level the playing field for European companies.

The fine against Google has nothing to do with her “personal feelings,” Vestager said. “The mission is very simple, we have to protect consumers and competition.”

“I think that’s a good thing to be predictable in a world that seems different than it was some time ago,” she added.

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WARSAW — When I heard that the European Commission planned to settle an antitrust probe into Gazprom in 2017, I was surprised. Now, that I’ve seen a leaked version of the confidential legal charges against the Russian gas giant, I am both disappointed and embarrassed.

The antitrust proceeding against Gazprom was launched in 2011 with a series of raids on European energy companies in search of proof of the Russian company’s anticompetitive behavior. It took until 2015 for the Commission to present Gazprom with its Statement of Objections.

In 2017, Gazprom proposed its idea to resolve the case, offering measures it said would ensure gas could flow in Central and Eastern Europe at competitive prices. The Commission accepted this, even though Central European companies and member countries objected. Indeed, in 2017, some 20 companies heavily criticized the measures Gazprom was proposing.

The Commission’s light-handed approach to Gazprom is particularly egregious, given the way it treated the Polish gas utility PGNiG.

Every PGNiG management board since 2011 has cooperated with the Commission and provided all of the documents and data it requested in the course of the antitrust proceedings. These included trade secrets that no company in Europe would normally disclose.

In 2016, the Commission, after five years of stalling, ordered us to disclose virtually every document related to the sales contract with Gazprom. No excuses were accepted. The smallest details, including price formulas, amendments and exchanges of notes, were filed with the Commission under the explicit threat of a financial penalty amounting to 5 percent of PGNiG’s income — approximately €1 million per day. Yes, as ironic as it may seem, the Commission threatened PGNiG, which had for years been subject to Gazprom’s anti-competitive maneuvers, with a fine in the course of the antitrust proceedings against the Russian company.

Now the Commission is about to let Gazprom get away without any fine at all.

The Commission’s Directorate General for Competition (DG COMP) has its list of successes: Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft — all global, all very aggressive on the EU market, like Gazprom. But with respect to Gazprom, the Commission has chosen forgiveness. It decided to look for consensus in the hope that Gazprom would stop breaching EU law and clean up its record.

This was the Commission’s first misjudgment. You cannot find a compromise with a company that does not want one. Gazprom’s sole intention is to monopolize the Central European market, either through breaching or ignoring EU law.

Over the past decade, Gazprom has prevented the construction of reverse flows on trunk pipelines, established barriers to the gas trade within the EU internal market, disrespected the core principles of the EU’s Third Energy Package and regularly disrupted gas supplies to Europe — every two years on average. All this took place during ongoing antitrust proceedings.

Second, the Commission decided to conceal its proceedings against Gazprom from the public. After the 2011 raids, the Commission should have immediately issued a Statement of Objections, informed the public of its findings and imposed a proportionate fine on Gazprom. Instead, the Commission chose to conceal its work and wait four years to present its Statement of Objections, while Gazprom continued its anti-competitive “business as usual” approach in Central Europe.

Recently, our Lithuanian colleagues reported they had lost around €1.4 billion between 2004 and 2012 because of unfair prices levied by Gazprom. Lithuania uses 3 billion cubic meters  (bcm) of gas a year. Central Europe uses 40 bcm a year, and citizens lost €19 billion over the same period. They continue to lose money today, because the Commission’s actions have fallen short.

Third, DG COMP failed to put in place comprehensive measures that would prevent Gazprom from abusing EU law in the future.

We can understand that a case against Gazprom, in contrast to a case against U.S. companies, is difficult politically. I don’t envy the political pressure Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager has faced from member countries and commissioners, who opted for compromise with Gazprom.

DG COMP was established by the member countries to protect their citizens, but the measures it intends to impose on Gazprom were not prepared by its officials. They were proposed by Gazprom; the Commission simply gave its consent. One cannot expect Gazprom to propose measures aimed at protecting EU citizens. This is the obligation of DG COMP, which has failed to deliver.

Central European companies believed in DG COMP and its ability to limit Gazprom’s monopoly. Unfortunately, we have been left alone with our problems.

If it’s true that the Commission is poised to settle soon, then the only explanation is that DG COMP is facilitating the Nord Stream 2 pipeline being built by Gazprom under the Baltic Sea to connect Russia and Germany. The pipeline bypasses Central Europe and reopens the risk of Gazprom’s return to bad practices of the past. It would be an irony if Gazprom invested the money it had saved on fines in the development of Nord Stream 2.

It is not too late to bring back a straightforward approach and make sure Gazprom has to compete fairly in Central and Eastern Europe. That would be the best way to regain trust in DG COMP.

Piotr Woźniak is CEO of Polish gas company PGNiG.

This article is part of POLITICO’s new coverage of competition, antitrust and state aid issues, launching soon. Email [email protected] to request a complimentary trial.

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Democratic Party voters are more easily influenced by film and television than their Republican counterparts, a new nationwide poll has found.

The poll, undertaken by The Hollywood Reporter and Morning Consult, asked 2,200 participants to what extent film and television changed their views on hot button political issues such as racism, LGBT rights, and climate change.

The survey pointed to numerous interesting trends, but perhaps the most interesting was that Democratic Party voters were more likely to have their views changed by Hollywood than Republicans.

For example, on the question of “To what extent has your opinion about racism been changed by a docuseries, movie, or TV show like ‘Green Book’ or ‘Crash’?”, 17 percent of Democrats responded with “a lot,” compared with just 4 percent of Republicans.

When asked to “what extent has your opinion about climate change been changed by a docuseries, movie, or TV show like ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ or ‘Planet Earth’?”, the results were more stark. A total 27 percent of Democrats responded with a “lot,” compared with just seven percent of Republicans.

The same trend was apparent on the question of LGBT issues. When asked “to what extent has your opinion about LGBTQ people been changed by a docuseries, movie, or TV show like ‘Brokeback Mountain’ or ‘Modern Family’?”, 15 percent of Democrats said a “lot,” compared with just five percent of Republicans.

Such results underline the widening chasm between Hollywood and large swathes of the American voter, with the film industry overwhelmingly biased in favor of progressivism and left-wing political ideas.

The poll was conducted between June 13-June 17, 2019 among a nationwide sample of 2200 adults, with results having a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at [email protected].

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The Argentine attacker faces an uncertain future and could even return to Italy next season

Mauro Icardi’s agent and wife Wanda Nara does not know if the Paris Saint-Germain loanee will remain in the French capital or return to parent club Inter amid links to Juventus.

Icardi is on loan at Ligue 1 champions PSG, who have the option to make the deal permanent for a fee in the region of €70 million ($75m) at the end of the season.

The Argentina international was unwanted by Antonio Conte’s Inter heading into the 2019-20 campaign and his move to PSG has yielded 19 goals in all competitions.

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Icardi, who has only scored twice in his past 12 appearances, has previously spoken of his willingness to stay at PSG but Nara said she is unsure what the future holds.

“Will Mauro go to Juventus? I really don’t know,” Nara told Chi magazine.

“I don’t know if next season we will return to Milan or Paris. In football you never know.

“He will choose and we will follow him. It’s difficult for you to argue because I know Mauro very well and I know exactly what he wants as a footballer and what makes him feel good as a man.

“I will follow him in his choices as wife and as his agent for extra security.”

Icardi was an unused substitute as PSG lost 2-1 to Borussia Dortmund in the opening leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Tuesday. Ligue 1 leaders PSG and Icardi host 10th-placed Bordeaux in Paris on Sunday.

Nara has previously ruled out the prospect of her husband joining Juventus but it appears that stance has now softened. 

“No, no. The present of Mauro is in Paris, he is very well there and is realising some crazy goals as he always did,” she told Rete 4 in December 2019 when asked if Icardi could join Juventus.

“The only thing that interests me is his happiness and he is very happy at PSG.”

Speaking in January, Icardi himself said he’d be content to remain in Paris.

“I feel well in Paris, for the moment we still haven’t spoken with the club,” he told reporters last month.

“There are still four months until the end of the season. When the season ends in May, we’ll sit down and talk. If I have the chance to stay I would be happy.”

The France international ended his nine-game dry spell when he rounded off the Gunners’ 4-0 win over Newcastle on Sunday

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta believes Alexandre Lacazette’s goal against Newcastle on Sunday will boost the striker’s confidence.

The 28-year-old was on a run of nine games without a goal when he came off the bench to replace Eddie Nketiah with just five minutes left.

But the France international made his brief appearance count as he set up Mesut Ozil’s goal and then netted one of his own late into stoppage time to round off a 4-0 victory.

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And Arteta was delighted with the striker’s impact, which saw him take his Premier League tally to six goals for the season, and hopes it leads to more.

“I’m so pleased for Laca – the reaction of the players and staff towards him,” Arteta said to BBC Sport.

“He fights hard for everyone. He’s been unlucky. He will gain confidence from this and knows how everyone appreciates him.”

Asked why he played Nketiah ahead of Lacazette, Arteta said at his post-match press conference:  “The message is clear. Whoever trains like they do and has the abilities to play like he did has a chance to play.

“Laca has been playing all the games and hasn’t scored. I told him the decision and he accepted it. I told him he would come on and score, he did and I’m so pleased.”

But the ex-Lyon star is not the only one who earned the coach’s praise, as he highlighted Bukayo Saka and Dani Ceballos as well. 

“Bukayo Saka is doing really well,” he added. “He keeps his head down and wants to learn. He’s peforming like a senior player.

“Dani Ceballos is a good example. He was injured and when he started to train I didn’t think he was fit enough. He completely changed his behaviour and trained like an animal. I thought he was the best player on the pitch.”

All of Arsenal’s goals came in the second half of the clash with Steve Bruce’s team, whereas they managed just three shots on target in the opening 45 minutes.

Arteta was pleased to see his side’s response after half-time and end their run of four straight draws in the English top-flight.

“After the break we started saying we had to start closing the gap on the top teams and turn draws into wins. Today was the first opportunity and we’ve done it. All good.”

Arsenal are now 10th in the league and are in action again on Thursday when they meet Olympiacos in the Europa League.

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LONDON — The U.K. will publish a “punchy” official paper Thursday that will double down on the government’s threat to set up a rival system to the EU’s Galileo satellite navigation project after Brexit, if Brussels goes ahead with freezing Britain out of the project.

There is growing fury in London at what it sees as Brussels’ uncompromising stance in negotiations over a project that the British government see as a test case for how close the U.K.’s future security relationship with the Continent will be.

For months the European Commission has stuck to its position that the U.K. cannot remain a full partner in the €10 billion satellite system because it will no longer be an EU member after Brexit. Officials in Brussels say it is simply a matter of law that as a “third country” the U.K. cannot access the same encrypted information as members of the bloc or be involved in the system’s future development, regardless of the U.K.’s contribution to the project.

The U.K. Cabinet, so often divided over Brexit, is united in opposition to what it sees as intransigence on behalf of the Commission, according to British negotiators briefed on the matter. One senior U.K. official familiar with discussions over Galileo said Cabinet ministers and officials are “astounded” at the EU’s position. 

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“Sometimes you have Remainers on one side and Leavers on the other,” the official said. “Not on this one. Some of the people who are most exercised are [Remainers] Greg Clark, Gavin Williamson, Philip Hammond.”

The official accused the EU of “hiding behind a legalistic argument” when the reality is about “narrow commercial interest” because French firms have the most to gain from U.K. companies being denied the right to bid for contracts for the development of Galileo.

The EU’s position on Galileo also unnecessarily pre-empted negotiations about a future U.K.-EU security partnership, British negotiators say, which they believe could resolve the EU’s concerns.

“This is the ridiculous position we are in,” the official said. “We are now, apparently, not a trusted security partner. Everyone in HMG [Her Majesty’s government] is perplexed. From a narrow tactical angle, I guess you can see what they are doing. But where is the strategic analysis on this? Why are they doing it? It’s crazy. There is no reason why they couldn’t change the rules.”

The clash also risks further souring Brexit negotiations, which are already in trouble over customs and the Northern Irish border, weeks before June’s EU summit in Brussels.

Security

Thursday’s new U.K. position paper will place Galileo within the wider debate about the proposed future EU-U.K. security partnership, according to two officials familiar with the contents of the document. 

The paper risks sparking fresh accusations that Britain is adding qualifications to its “unconditional” commitment to European security at the first sign of trouble, despite Prime Minister Theresa May’s pledge to European leaders earlier this year that Britain remains “just as committed to Europe’s security in the future as it has been in the past.”

The document is also likely to spell out what the U.K. believes will be the cost to the EU in money, lost expertise and future delays in the project if Britain is no longer allowed to participate, while also making clear the U.K. will push ahead with plans to build a rival satellite system if no compromise can be found.

In a letter from Business Secretary Greg Clark to the European Commission in April, the U.K. warned that failure to find a compromise would leave Brussels with a £1 billion hole in the Galileo budget and cause delays of up to 3 years in developing technology, said a U.K. official who has seen the letter.

May’s chief negotiator Olly Robbins was in Brussels Wednesday to discuss the Galileo program ahead of the paper’s publication Thursday, but negotiators say they see little sign of their EU counterparts backing down.

Michel Barnier told the EU Institute for Security Studies conference earlier this month that the rules on Galileo “have been in place for a long time, and are well-known to the U.K.” He added: “In particular, third countries [and their companies] cannot participate in the development of security sensitive matters.”

In another position paper on Britain’s future security relationship with the EU after Brexit, which was released earlier this month, the government first laid out the bare bones of its position on Galileo.

It said the U.K. is “exploring the options for a domestic global navigation satellite system” in case Britain is unable to participate in Galileo in the future.

The U.K. also said it wants an agreement for British firms to be able to continue in the “development and operation” of the satellite signal and called for the U.K. to continue to have use of the satellite’s secure signal as well as the “exchange of sensitive security-related information.”

All of Britain’s red lines for a deal have been rejected by Brussels.

Old wounds

The impasse also threatens to reopen debate about the Brexit bill.

In December’s joint report — which allowed the EU to declare there had been “sufficient progress” in the negotiations to move on to the next round of talks — there was a specific clause pointing out that the financial settlement did not include Galileo.

“Union assets relating to Union space programmes (EGNOS, Galileo & Copernicus) are not part of the financial settlement,” the report said. It also left open the possibility that London’s previous contributions to the project could be dealt with separately.

“The U.K.’s past contribution to the financing of space assets could be discussed in the context of possible future access to the services offered,” the agreement stated.

The U.K. has contributed 12 percent toward the €10 billion space project.

The ex-Blancos star can understand why the La Liga giants are so keen on the Paris Saint-Germain forward, with the Frenchman destined for the very top

Kylian Mbappe is capable of making the same kind of impact at Real Madrid as that once enjoyed by five-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo, claims Steve McManaman.

Speculation regarding a switch to Spain for the Paris Saint-Germain striker refuses to go away.

The World Cup winner certainly fits the ‘Galactico’ mould for the Blancos and still has plenty of potential to unlock at just 20 years of age.

Real would welcome the opportunity to let the exciting forward flourish at Santiago Bernabeu.

McManaman can appreciate why his former club are so keen, with there every reason to believe that Mbappe can scale the same heights as those enjoyed by Madrid’s all-time leading goalscorer.

Quizzed by HorseRacing.net on whether the Frenchman could emulate a Portuguese superstar, McManaman said: “I think he would have the same sort of impact.

“I think he’s the next global superstar now Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are coming to the backend of their careers. 

“Neymar hasn’t really kicked on in the fashion that we all expected him to kick on at PSG. Kylian Mbappe is a young player, he’s very, very exciting and I think he’s got that aura about him to be the next superstar.

“Real Madrid have pinpointed him, haven’t they? They know that marketing-wise they can make a lot of money back on him and it’s all about how much he would be, if they could get him, how much his wages would be and whether they could afford him.

“I think he could certainly have that type of impact, it’s just that Real Madrid would have to do a bit of number crunching because they would probably start to fall foul of the problems that Manchester City are currently facing. 

“You just can’t have that many star players in a team with everything being absolutely fine. Then you add another player to the mix who’s going to probably eclipse everybody.

“It will be interesting to see if they can pull the transfer off.”

Mbappe, who has seen fresh terms mooted at PSG, has further enhanced his reputation this season by netting 24 times in 29 appearances – with his overall haul for the club now standing at 84 efforts in just 116 outings.

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