The government’s overhaul of the judiciary has “not lived up to expectations”, Poland’s prime minister has admitted. His remarks, in which he calls for further judicial “reform” in light of recent European court rulings against Poland, suggest that Warsaw may be preparing to compromise with Brussels.
Last week, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) found the disciplinary chamber for judges created by the Polish government to be in violation of European law and ordered it to be immediately suspended. Warsaw has criticised the rulings and so far not complied with them.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki reiterated his Law and Justice (PiS) government’s position that, in such “constitutional matters, where the EU does not have competences, national law has primacy over European law”, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
However, he added that “we are today in a situation where the operation of the disciplinary chamber of the Supreme Court can and should be reviewed…because it has certainly not lived up to expectations, including mine, also of our [political] grouping”.
Morawiecki claimed that the chamber had been intended to end the widespread feeling that judges “had impunity”. Opinion polls have indeed shown that most Poles are in favour of judicial reform, though also that most oppose PiS’s judicial policies and regard them as an attempt to violate the rule of law.
Morawiecki admitted that, “what is happening today in the area of the justice system probably does not satisfy everyone”, adding that he himself is “definitely not satisfied because I can see the lengthy court procedures, [which are] as they were [before], or even worse”.
One of the justifications PiS gave for its judicial overhaul was that it would improve the efficiency of the court system, whose slow pace had long frustrated Poles. However, evidence shows that in many areas the system has become even slower after PiS’s reforms.
“Those objectives which Poles expect, improvement of the functioning of the justice system, must be fulfilled,” said the prime minister. “We are awaiting this with enormous impatience and I hope that this next turn of the spinning wheel of the reform of the justice system will lead to a significant improvement in its operation.”
"There is a problem with the rule of law in Poland," says Jarosław Kaczyński.
Further "deep reform of the judiciary" is therefore needed, including "removing [certain] judges from the profession" in order to "eliminate pathologies" https://t.co/nX8c5h1HAE
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) September 9, 2020
These future changes would also relate to the disciplinary chamber of the Supreme Court, confirmed Morawiecki: “Since [the chamber] does not meet our expectations, I think it is possible to review its functioning…and we will be discussing this with the cabinet.”
The prime minister also suggested that these discussions would take into account the recent CJEU rulings, as well as the views of the European Commission, which brought the cases against Poland and has given the country one month to comply with last week’s judgements or face potential fines.
“Every reform, including this one, needs a new analysis…To proceed with a certain overhaul of the system, which is still needed[,]…I think that within the cabinet we will also have some ideas, also regarding the European Commission and these rulings that have been made,” said Morawiecki yesterday.
However, he emphasised that these changes must be implemented “without diminishing the primacy of the Polish constitution over EU law in any way”.
Main image credit: Zucchi Enzo/EU (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
