Five people, including two teenage girl scouts, died and more than 30 were injured as a result of falling trees in a series of severe storms that hit Poland overnight.

The European Commissioner in charge of food safety has called for a meeting of ministers and national regulatory agencies to discuss a widespread European contamination scare, which has seen shops remove millions of eggs from sale.

“I believe that on the eighth anniversary the monuments will be standing here, and that we will have the final answers about the Smolensk crash,” said PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński on ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście in Warsaw. On Thursday evening, members and supporters of the Law and Justice party met to commemorate the 88th mensiversary of the crash. There was also a counter-demonstration.

The EU's executive arm, the European Commission, is concerned that reintroducing a different retirement age for men and women in Poland could violate the bloc's equality rules, according to a letter from Brussels to Warsaw seen by Reuters.

The European Union's executive arm has asked the European Court of Justice to speed up a case against Poland over logging in its ancient forest, which has continued despite an order by the bloc's top court to stop immediately, an official said.

Poland's European future is uncertain, European Council head Donald Tusk said on Thursday amid escalating rows with Brussels over the Polish government's tightening grip on the judiciary, environment and state media.

According to an announcement made on Wednesday by the press service of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, its new mission motto – “To be faithful to my Homeland, the Republic of Poland” – comes from an oath taken by soldiers of the Home Army. The new motto replaced the previous mission motto which read: “To serve Poland – to build Europe – to understand the world”.

"If it is confirmed that the logging continues to take place in the Białowieża Forest, the issue will be taken up in the ongoing rule of law procedure with Poland," the European Commission announced on Wednesday. Until now, the Commission has only been focusing on changes to the Polish judiciary.

On 1 August 1944, an uprising broke out in Warsaw on orders of the Commander of the Home Army General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski. For 63 days, a heroic and lonely struggle was waged against German troops. The goal was independent Poland that would be free from both German occupation and Soviet domination.

Poland said on Monday it would press on with logging the country's primeval Bialowieza forest in defiance of a ruling by the European Union's top court, saying it needed to cut down trees to defeat insect pests.

"There is clear disagreement between Law and Justice and Solidarna Polska – the two parties that form the core of the governing coalition – over the conclusions that should be drawn from the President's decision," the President's Chief of Staff Krzysztof Szczerski told the Polish Press Agency. In his opinion, the statement made by the Minister of Justice contradicts what the Chairman of PiS said.

The European Union's top court ordered Poland on Friday July 28th to immediately halt large-scale logging in an ancient protected forest, one of many cases that has pitted the nationalist, eurosceptic government in Warsaw against the bloc.

This part of the political season ends with some optimism. On the one hand, thousands of protesting Poles, and on the other, the President who is finally doing his job,” former Minister of National Defense Tomasz Siemoniak (PO) told “Fakty po Faktach”.

Either the President will go down in history as a great figure, as one of the leaders of the good change, as a man who contributed to building a strong and fair state in Poland, or we have lost,” said Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro, commenting on Andrzej Duda's decision to veto two bills on the judiciary branch.

The College of Commissioners adopted another, already third, recommendation for Poland, with a monthly time limit for Polish authorities to comply, as Frans Timmermans, the First Vice-President of the European Commission informed on Wednesday.

The announcement of two presidential vetoes has not calmed down the protesters who still – although on a much lesser scale – went to the streets of Polish cities. The demonstrators contest the judicial reforms about to be introduced by the Law and Justice party. On Tuesday evening, they gathered in Warsaw, Gdańsk, Szczecin, Wrocław, Krakow, Białystok and Łódź, just to name some.

The National Council of the Judiciary (KRS) has thanked the President for vetoing the bills on the Supreme Court and the KRS. The Council has also upheld its declaration of cooperation in the design of new legislative proposals on the functioning of the judiciary.

"The President has signed the amendment to the law on common courts,” announced the President’s deputy chief of staff Paweł Mucha. He added that this was the part of the reform of the judiciary branch with the greatest impact on the interests of citizens.

The opposition reacted with satisfaction and the ruling majority with consternation to the announcement that President Andrzej Duda will veto bills on the Supreme Court and the National Council of the Judiciary.

“Andrzej Duda will sign the act on common courts,” said the President’s spokesman Krzysztof Łapiński. Changes in the way head judges are appointed and dismissed, which will give the Minister of Justice greater power, and the imposition of random assignment of cases to judges are the two most important provisions of the amended act.

“I decided to return to the Sejm, that is, to veto, the act on the Supreme Court and the act on the National Council of the Judiciary,” said Andrzej Duda in a statement on Monday. He announced he would submit his own drafts of these acts. We have selected the most important statements in the President's speech.

"The Polish government has continued to pursue legislation that appears to undermine judicial independence and weaken the rule of law in Poland", said U.S. State Department regarding Poland. Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs replied.

"We, senators, have a duty towards the new generation: to answer whether Poland’s symbol will be a prison garb or a white rose," said Senator Jan Rulewski during the Senate debate on the Supreme Court bill. The Civic Platform senator participates in the debate dressed in a prison garb. When speaking, he even used a metal cup such as those used by inmates. As the committee’s minority rapporteur, he spoke in favor of rejecting the Supreme Court bill.

"Is there no limit to hypocrisy and mockery? Down with the scoundrels," Deputy Minister of the Interior and Administration, Jarosław Zieliński, wrote on Twitter. This was his assessment of Thursday's protests in the streets of many cities against the act on the Supreme Court, drafted by the Law and Justice party (PiS) and passed by parliament. Minister of the Interior and Administration, Mariusz Błaszczak, also commented on the demonstrations, saying that he "noticed many strollers among the protesters."

"President Andrzej Duda is facing a historic decision," Aleksander Kwaśniewski said in an interview for "Kropka nad i". "Either he will take part in a coup against an independent judiciary branch, or he will show courage, which may cost him reelection, but will go down in history as a good deed," said the former President.

After stormy deliberations, the Justice Committee of the Sejm rejected in block voting all amendments to the draft law on the Supreme Court proposed by the opposition. Amendments proposed by PiS were approved. Members of the opposition protested against block voting. The voting procedure was received with shouts of "ORMO, ZOMO, censorship," "No consent to such methods," "You’re making Kaczyński a dictator." Towards the end of the meeting there was a scuffle over Stanisław Piotrowicz's microphone. Some MPs sang the national anthem.

President of the European Council Donald Tusk asked President Andrzej Duda for a meeting, confirmed the President's Chief of Staff Krzysztof Szczerski. According to the President, "there is no room for an intervention by the head of the European Council".

"This is not lawmaking. This is pushing through a bill that was drafted in unclear circumstances, in obscure circles. A bill that has hardly been amended. A bill that violates the fundamental principles of the Constitution. This is very poor lawmaking," Professor Marek Chmaj, a constitutional expert, comments on what happened in the Sejm last night.

Last week the amendment of the Act on the National Judiciary Council and the amendment of the Law on the Court System became the focal point for disputes regarding the judiciary system in Poland. A bill on the Supreme Court penned by the Law and Justice (PiS - Prawo i Sprawiedliwość) government was also submitted to the parliament (Sejm). The first two documents have been ratified and are presently waiting for the President’s signature. The bill on the Supreme Court that evinced protests attended by many thousands of people in several of Poland’s cities was sent to a parliamentary commission for further legislative work.

The law on the National Council of the Judiciary passed by the Polish Parliament and drafted by the ruling Law and Justice party, the amended law on the Polish judicial system and the law on the Supreme Court that is currently awaiting amendments have been met with criticism of the judiciary and legal communities and commented by the European institutions as well. "This legislation (…) may undermine the separation of powers in Poland" – the European Parliament President, Antonio Tajani, wrote to the Polish President, Andrzej Duda. Frans Timmermans, on the other hand, threatened to trigger Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union on Poland.