MIDDAY BRIEF, IN BRIEF

Today at Commission, Poland’s reforms and Volkswagen’s commitment

Warsaw’s judicial revamp and the German carmaker’s pledge to fix millions of cars come up at the first briefing back after the holidays.

After the summer holidays, it was back to business as usual at the European Commission’s midday briefing.

On Monday, Commission spokeswoman Lucia Caudet said the Polish government had not yet officially responded to the Commission’s infringement procedure against its judiciary reforms. (The Polish government said later Monday that it had sent the letter.)

The Commission is also monitoring Volkswagen’s commitment following the Dieselgate scandal to fix all the cars with cheating devices to lower their emissions by this fall. However, the Commission was not willing to provide a comment on whether the German car company can stick to its own deadline, as Volkswagen has said it still has 3.3 million cars to repair.

The Commission “is working on a more robust regulatory framework,” Caudet said, adding that the biggest issue is “consumer trust” if Volkswagen fails to fulfill its promise.

The Commission is also monitoring new arrivals of migrants and refugees in Greece as numbers have been increasing in recent weeks. But Caudet said the Commission will not present any new plans on the migration front and would rather work on the implementation of measures decided in July to help Italy face the migration crisis.

Caudet also declined to comment on the proposal of the British Labour Party for the U.K. to stay in the single market (at least for a transitional period) after Brexit.