US President Barack Obama on Friday expressed concerns over controversial reforms by Poland’s right-wing government to its top court, in moves that critics insist have paralysed the institution.

“I expressed to President Duda, our concerns about certain actions and the impasse around Poland’s constitutional tribunal,” Obama said following bilateral talks with his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda on the margins of a NATO summit in the Polish capital.

Since taking office in November 2015, Poland’s right-wing populist Law and Justice (PiS) government has pushed through several pieces of controversial legislation.

They include institutional changes to the country’s constitutional court and state-owned media.

In January, the European Commission, the EU executive, launched a probe to see if the overhauls violated EU democracy rules, chiefly the principle of the rule of law.

But six months of talks between Brussels and the Polish government have failed to resolve the dispute.

Warsaw even accused the EU of attempting to violate its sovereignty when it requested a roll back of the controversial reforms.

“As your friends and ally we’ve urged all parties to work together to sustain Poland’s democratic institutions,” added Obama, a trained lawyer, as he underscored the key role of independent judiciaries and the free press in democracies.

His comments come just a day after the PiS-controlled Polish parliament adopted new legislation on the top court that legal experts said would bring about its “total paralysis”.