Polish government withdraws judicial bill for further consultation after president expresses doubts

Poland’s government has withdrawn from the parliamentary agenda judicial legislation – intended to meet the European Union’s demands and unlock billions in frozen funds – after President Andrzej Duda expressed doubts over the plans. Further consultations will now take place before moving ahead further.

The legislation, submitted to parliament this week, would transfer disciplinary powers over judges from the Supreme Court to the Supreme Administrative Court and also change the system for testing the independence and impartiality of judges.

It is the latter aspect that has raised the concern of Duda, who at a press conference yesterday said that he “was not consulted on the provisions” of the bill (despite the government earlier saying that he had been). The president has the power to veto laws passed by parliament.

“I will not allow an act to be introduced into the Polish legal system that will undermine judicial appointments made by the president, that will allow anyone to review these judicial appointments,” added Duda. “The president’s decision is final and indisputable.”

While the president agreed that unlocking Poland’s EU funds is important, he said that he would be “assessing [the bill’s] compliance with the constitution of Poland, but also taking into account the sovereign right of Poland to shape the judiciary in the way we Poles, together with the democratically elected authorities, want to do it”.

Responding to Duda’s remarks, the government’s minister for European affairs, Szymon Szynkowski vel Senk, said he “accepted with humiltiary” that “the president did not feel sufficiently consulted” about the bill. “I will be committed to ensuring that the president has all the details during parliamentary work.”

The government’s spokesman, Piotr Müller, likewise said that they would be “at the full disposal” of the president during ongoing work on the legislation, reports the Rzeczspospolita daily.

Another challenge facing Law and Justice (PiS), the main ruling party, is that one of its junior coalition partners, the eurosceptic United Poland (Solidarna Polska), has made clear that it opposes the proposed legislation. Without its support, the government would have to secure some opposition votes.

United Poland’s leader, justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro, yesterday declared that the proposals “violate the constitution” and “would result in far-reaching anarchy in the judiciary…at the expense of citizens and the good of the functioning of the justice system”, reports Polsat News.

Late last night, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki – who supports the bill – announced that there would now be “two or three weeks” of consultation on the legislation, including with Duda and Ziobro.

Earlier in the day, PiS spokesman Rafał Bochenek confirmed that for now the bill had been removed from the parliamentary agenda at the party’s request.

“In accordance with the president’s appeal, this issue requires in-depth analysis, consultation, it should be discussed more,” he said, quoted by RMF24. “Therefore we are moving the process to January.”

The issue that Duda has expressed concern about relates in particular to the status of judges appointed after the government’s overhaul of the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS), the body responsible for nominating judges.

A number of Polish and European court rulings have found that the changes made to the KRS – which gave politicians the dominant role in choosing its members – have rendered it illegitimate. That has cast doubt on the status of judges nominated by it (who are subsequently appointed by the president).

In June, a law proposed by Duda was passed as an attempt to find a compromise. It not only closed down the disputed disciplinary chamber for judges, but also allowed for the testing of judges’ impartiality.

This possibility was reserved for those that could prove that the manner in which a judge was appointed had an impact on the ruling they made. The right was also only available to the affected parties. PiS’s proposed new law would allow other judges to request such testing without a case being filed by a plaintiff.

Some legal experts have already expressed doubt as to whether the proposals presented by the government this week comply with the EU’s previously stated requirements, and have also questioned whether they are permissible under the Polish constitution.

Judges’ organisation Iustitia – which has long opposed the government’s judicial reforms – argues that the new proposals would violate the constitutional autonomy of the judicial branches, none of which has authority over the other.

According to the organisation, it is unacceptable that, for example, a gross violation of civil or criminal law by a judge should be ruled on by a judge of the Supreme Administrative Court who does not apply that law.

Main image credit: Marek Borawski/KPRP

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.