Poland’s disciplinary system for judges infringed European law, finds EU court

Polish judicial reforms that introduced a new disciplinary system for judges violated European law, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has found. The ruling ends a long-running case that has seen Poland fined over half a billion euros.

The case was brought against Poland by the European Commission in response to the introduction in 2019 of new legislation – dubbed the “muzzle law” by critics – that implemented tough measures against judges that refused to accept the validity of the government’s judicial reforms.

In 2021, the CJEU issued an interim order for that disciplinary system to be suspended pending a final ruling. Warsaw’s failure to comply with that order resulted in daily fines of €1 million being levied against it, which were reduced to €500,000 in April this year after Poland was deemed to have partially complied.

In its final ruling today, the CJEU upheld the complaint filed by the European Commission against Poland. It noted that, while EU member states have the right to organise their own judiciaries, in doing so they “must comply with the obligations arising from EU law.”

That means “refraining from adopting rules that would undermine the independence of judges”, which is a “fundamental value” and “legally binding obligation” that “is an integral part of the very identity of the European Union”, said the court.

The CJEU found that Poland’s disciplinary chamber for judges – a body that was last year abolished and replaced with another entity – “does not satisfy the requirement of independence and impartiality” and that the scope of its powers “is liable to affect [judges’] independence”.

Moreover, the disciplinary regime could be used to prevent national courts from assessing whether another court or individual judge meets the requirements of EU law, found the CJEU. That is “incompatible with the guarantees of access to an independent and impartial tribunal”.

Additionally, the “monopolistic control” over verifying compliance with essential elements of judicial protection given to a new entity created by the government – the Extraordinary Review and Public Affairs Chamber – also infringes EU law and undermines judicial protection, found the CJEU.

Finally, the European court ruled that requiring judges to submit information on “any membership of an association, non-profit foundation or political party”, and then placing that information online, infringes the rights of those judges to the protection of personal data and respect for private life.

In response to the ruling, Poland’s justice minister, Zbigniew Ziobro, repeated his previous claims that the CJEU was “encroaching on competences it doesn’t have” and accused the court of being a “corrupt” institution.

After coming to power in 2015, Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party embarked on a radical overhaul of the judiciary. One of its declared aims was to end what it claimed was the impunity judges had created for themselves as a self-governing “caste”.

To this end, through they created new rules and bodies intended to hold the judiciary to account. That included measures prohibiting judges from “obstructing the functioning of the judiciary” by, for example, questioning the validity of the appointment of other judges and of rulings made by them.

Critics and many experts argued that the real aim was to punish judges who refused to accept judicial reforms that have been found to be unlawful by a variety of Polish and European court rulings, resulting in a chaotic situation whereby some judges refuse to recognise the legitimacy of others.

Concerns over judicial independence and other aspects of the rule of law in Poland have led the European Commission to withhold billions of euros of post-pandemic recovery funds and cohesion funds.

Under that financial pressure, Poland’s government has sought to meet a series of “milestones” agreed with Brussels, including abolishing the disciplinary chamber.

However, when that change proved inadequate, PiS sought to move the judicial disciplinary system to a separate court. However, that legislation has been delayed after it was referred by President Duda to the constitutional court, which is currently partially paralysed by an internal conflict.

Last month, the PiS prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, admitted that his government’s judicial reforms have “not turned out too well”, blaming the situation on a junior coalition partner led by the justice minister.

Main image credit: Court of Justice of the European Union

Alicja Ptak

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