A bill that would overhaul Poland’s disciplinary system for judges – which the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party hopes will unlock EU funds frozen over the rule of law – has been passed by parliament. It now moves to the desk of President Andrzej Duda, who can sign it into law, veto it, or send it to the constitutional court for assessment.
Yesterday saw the more powerful lower house of parliament, the Sejm, where the government has a majority, reject 14 amendments to the bill proposed by the opposition-controlled upper chamber, the Senate. That resulted in the legislation, in its original form previously approved by the Sejm, passing to Duda.
While PiS’s hardline junior coalition United Poland (Solidarna Polska) joined the rest of the ruling camp in voting down the opposition amendments, it repeated its criticism of the bill. Duda has also previously expressed doubts about it, raising speculation that he could veto the law or send it to the Constitutional Tribunal.
The Polish ruling party's new judicial bill is “unconstitutional on many levels”, says the Supreme Court's spokesman.
Many legal experts and judges have voiced doubts about the constitutionality of the law, which is intended to unblock frozen EU funds https://t.co/fjXiIhl3s1
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) January 16, 2023
The proposed law would remove responsibility for assessing disciplinary cases against judges from the Supreme Court’s chamber of professional responsibility, which was itself only established eight 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 Senate’s 14 amendments would have radically changed the bill, including by having disciplinary cases heard by the Supreme Court’s criminal chamber rather than the NSA.
Sejm's Justice and Human Rights Committee by votes of PiS party and Solidarna Polska rejected all 14 amendments to the Act on the Supreme Court. Today's the vote in plenary chamber; amendments likely to bej rejected and the bill adopted. @d_sitnicka https://t.co/dw4G1ATQIv pic.twitter.com/ilOKFLX2lr
— Rule of Law in Poland (@RULEOFLAWpl) February 8, 2023
Although PiS’s senators voted in favour of those amendments, senior figures from the party argued that they would transform the legislation from that which had been agreed with the European Commission, thereby putting Poland’s EU funds at risk. The PiS caucus in the Sejm, therefore, voted to remove them.
While United Poland joined its coalition partners from PiS in voting down the opposition amendments, its leader, justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro, appealed for PiS to suspend the passage of the bill.
After PiS ignored those appeals and allowed the bill to proceed, Ziobro called it a “bad day for Poles” because “this law is the implementation of blackmail [by the EU], it is a blow to Polish sovereignty, the Polish constitution and the Polish judiciary”, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
A number of legal scholars – who have often been critics of the reforms led by Ziobro – also agree that the new bill would violate the constitution, in particular by expanding the powers of the NSA beyond the administrative issues that are its constitutional remit.
Meanwhile, Duda last year voiced his own doubts about another aspect of the bill: the fact that it would allow judges to legally question the status of fellow members of the judiciary (which the president is concerned would undermine his constitutional prerogative to appoint judges).
That has raised the possibility of Duda either vetoing the bill or sending it to the Constitutional Tribunal (TK) for assessment. While the TK has often been seen as a tool of the ruling party, it has in recent weeks been embroiled in an internal dispute over the status of its chief justice, Julia Przyłębska, a close associate of PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński.
A final concern is over whether, even if the bill is signed into law by Duda, it will be sufficient to unlock Poland’s frozen EU funds. Polish media have in recent days carried differing accounts, based on inside sources in Warsaw and Brussels, as to whether, when and how the European Commission would approve the release of funds.
Even a senior PiS MP, Marek Suski, said yesterday that he remained pessimistic. “I have the impression that whatever we do, we are still disliked there [in Brussels] and the chances that they will give us [the funds] are small,” he told Polskie Radio.
Main image credit: Jakub Szymczyk/KPRP
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.
