New and definitive rejection by the European Court of Justice of Polish judicial reform, which, according to Community judges, violated the bloc’s democratic principles. The Luxembourg-based body denounced the reform approved by Warsaw in 2019, arguing that it would place national judges under government control, thereby violating the principle of separation of powers and the rule of law.
The subject of the dispute is the measures that prevent lawyers from referring certain legal issues to the Community Court of Justice and de facto deprive the court of its power of control, and the establishment of a new “disciplinary chamber”, which is a direct judicial body. Control of the government, which gives the independence of Polish judges and has the power to waive their immunity from criminal prosecution. For Europe, this goes against the principle of separation of powers at the heart of the democratic system, thus putting the judges under the control of the executive and intimidating. The judges also ruled that posting online the judges’ declarations of membership to associations, nonprofit foundations or political parties violated their right to privacy and could be used to influence them.
“The value of the rule of law is part of the Union’s identity as a common legal order and takes the form of principles with legally binding obligations for Member States”, reiterating its assessment accordingly, the EU Court affirms. The disciplinary division of the Polish Supreme Court “does not meet the necessary requirement of independence and impartiality”. According to him, “for judges who are called to apply EU law, it is only possible to risk that such a body may decide on questions relating to their status and the performance of their duties, in particular by allowing their trial or detention, or by making decisions on essential aspects of applicable employment, social security or pension schemes. likely to undermine their independence”.
The case was brought by the European Commission and supported by Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands. The decision is final, which means that Poland must now replace elements of its judicial system that were deemed illegal by the Luxembourg court. If Warsaw does not do this, EU judges could impose further financial penalties. In 2021, the European Court of Justice ruled that the reform was against EU law and fined 1 million euros per day for Warsaw’s failure to relax the system, then reduced it to 500,000 euros per day last year. He corrected and accepted some of Brussels’ requests.
“Today is an important day for the restoration of an independent justice in Poland. The EU Court of Justice has approved our analysis of the Polish judicial law of December 2019. This law violates the basic principles of the Polish legal order ” EU. Now we expect Poland to comply fully with the sentence”, wrote European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders in a tweet after the judges’ statement.
Today’s sentence puts new pressure on the Law and Justice party (Pis), which has been in the country’s government since 2015 and is already grappling with strong protests from the opposition, which yesterday took more than half a million people to the streets to condemn those they believed were guilty. Attacks on democracy and women’s rights, with an almost complete ban on abortion and the LGBT+ community. Polish Deputy Justice Minister Sebastian Kaleta called the decision “nonsense”.
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Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
