The lower house of parliament, the Sejm, has voted in favour of legislation to overhaul Poland’s disciplinary system for judges in the hope of unblocking billions of euros of funds frozen by the European Union over rule-of-law concerns.
In an unusual vote, almost all MPs from the main ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) were in favour but their hard-right junior coalition partner – United Poland (Solidarna Polska), led by justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro – was opposed and most opposition MPs abstained.
The bill now passes to the Senate, where the opposition has a majority. However, while the upper chamber can delay its passage and propose amendments, those can be removed by the more powerful Sejm.
If a final version of the bill is then approved by the lower house, it would pass to President Andrzej Duda. He is normally a PiS ally but has expressed doubts about the legislation, leading to speculation he could veto it.
The government has temporarily withdrawn a judicial bill submitted earlier this week after the president expressed doubts over it.
There will now be further consultation on the plans, which are intended to meet EU demands in order to unlock frozen funds https://t.co/KvXRgsIfgs
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) December 16, 2022
The legislation in question would remove responsibility for assessing disciplinary cases against judges from the Supreme Court’s chamber of professional responsibility, which was itself only established six months ago in a previous effort to unlock EU funds.
Cases would instead be heard by the Supreme Administrative Court (NSA). The bill also proposes expanding the possibility of launching a process to assess the independence and impartiality of judges.
The measures were put forward following discussions between the government and European Commission, with PiS Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki declaring that, if adopted, they would finally give Poland access to billions of euros of post-pandemic recovery funds.
However, Ziobro and his party – who take a much more eurosceptic line than PiS – warned that the changes are a threat to Polish sovereignty. A number of legal experts have also said that they violate the constitution.
Meanwhile, the European Union’s justice commission, Didier Reynders, tweeted on Saturday that passing the law would be a “promising first step” towards complying with the so-called “milestones” agreed to unlock Poland’s funds.
(3/3) With a view to the Commission’s future preliminary assessment under the #RRP, it will be important that the final law as adopted raises the standards on #judicial protection and judicial independence.
— Didier Reynders (@dreynders) January 7, 2023
In today’s vote, 203 MPs were in favour of the bill. Almost all of them were from PiS, with an additional five from smaller allied groups. Despite PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński previously expressing some concerns about the legislation, he was among those to vote in favour.
Meanwhile, 52 MPs voted against it, including 22 from the ruling camp: mostly members of United Poland but also two rebels from PiS itself. The far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) and centrist Poland 2050 (Polska 2050) were also opposed.
A further 189 MPs abstained from voting, representing the majority of deputies from the main centrist, centre-right and left-wing opposition groups: Civic Coalition (KO), The Left (Lewica), the Polish People’s Party (PSL) and Agreement (Porozumienie).
Voting for (Za) and against (Przeciw) the bill by parliamentary groups, as well as abstentions (Wstrzymało się) and absences (Nie głosowało)
The bill now passes to the Senate, whose speaker – Tomasz Grodzki of KO – said today that his chamber was likely to add amendments to the legislation.
In the Sejm, opposition parties had jointly tried to introduce such amendments to, for example, transfer power over disciplinary cases to the Supreme Court’s criminal chamber and require that judges assessing such cases have at least seven years of service on the court. They were, however, voted down by PiS.
If such amendments are now added by the Senate, they can be removed again by a majority in the Sejm. However, there remain questions over whether the government can muster a majority in the lower house to push through a final version of the law.
If opposition parties join United Poland and Confederation in voting against the bill next time it comes before the chamber, it would not pass. And even if it does, it remains possible that Duda could veto it or send it to the Constitutional Tribunal to assess whether it complies with the constitution.
The dispute with Brussels – and within Poland's own ruling camp – over unlocking frozen EU funds offers both dangers and opportunities for the ruling party ahead of this year's elections, writes @AleksSzczerbiak https://t.co/PRNE8lUX4Q
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) January 5, 2023
Main image credit: Sebastian Indra/MSZ (under CC BY-NC 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.
