Poland’s parliament amended [PDF, in Polish] Wednesday the controversial February bill [JURIST report] that criminalized speech suggesting Poland played a role in Holocaust atrocities.

At Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki‘s urging [Reuters report], lawmakers convened for an emergency session to amend the four-month-old law. The original law imposed three-year prison sentences for statements that “publicly and against the facts ascribe responsibility or co-responsibility for the crimes perpetrated by the Third German Reich to the Polish nation or the Polish state.”

Poland faced heated international criticism [JURIST report], led by Israel and the US, over the original law. Speaking to Reuters, an anonymous lawmaker conceded that “[t]he international discussion, and especially in the United States had an impact. This is all connected.” The amendment was quickly passed [legislative timeline, in Polish] through both houses of parliament, and was later signed [press release, text] by President Andrzej Duda.

The Polish government still faces pressure [JURIST report] from the EU over other moves that consolidated control over courts in the hands of the ruling party. In response, the European Commission [official website] initiated unprecedented proceedings under Article 7 [text] of the Treaty on European Union to sanction and potentially strip Poland of their EU voting rights.