The European Commission said on Wednesday (31 March) it is taking Poland to the European Court of Justice over a reform it says undermines the country’s judicial independence. Poland brushed it off, saying it had “no legal or factual justification”.
Brussels is also asking the court to make an interim order suspending the 2019 Polish law until a final judgment is delivered.
EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders told a news conference that “the Commission believes the law infringes upon the independence of the judiciary in Poland and is incompatible with the primacy of the law of the union”.
A spokesman for the Polish government, Piotr Muller, tweeted in response that the Commission move “has no legal or factual justification” and argued that judiciary matters are “an exclusively national domain”.
The Commission’s decision is part of a campaign by the EU executive to bring Poland, as well as its ally Hungary, back into line with what it considers European democratic norms.
GR
FR
DE
ES
IT
RU
EU
The European Commission on Wednesday decided to take Poland to the European Court of Justice “to protect the independence of judges” in the country.
ReplyDelete“The European Commission took a decision to protect the independence of judges and the rule of law in Poland”, EU Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders said at a news conference.
According to the EU executive body, the Polish law on judiciary adopted in December 2019 “undermines the independence of Polish judges and is incompatible with the primacy of EU law” as it threatens judges with a disciplinary procedure if they apply certain provisions of EU law protecting judicial independence.
With the referral to the EU court, the infringement procedure initiated by the European Commission last April enters the second phase as the Polish government declined to take the EU recommendations and change the law.
The European Commission also asked the EU court to introduce interim measures and suspend the Polish Supreme Court’s disciplinary chamber because the body’s decision may have a direct impact on judges while its independence is questionable.