“Serious concerns persist” over rule of law in Poland, says EU

There remain “serious concerns” over the independence of the judiciary in Poland, the European Commission has noted in its annual report on the rule of law in EU member states. It found that there has been no progress in implementing six of the seven recommendations it made last year.

As well as long-running concerns relating to the judiciary, media, lobbying, corruption and the prosecutorial service, the European Commission notes new issues that have arisen this year, including a recently introduced law creating a body that can ban politicians from holding office.

Warsaw and Brussels have been locked in a dispute over the rule of law for years, resulting in Poland being fined hundreds of millions of euros for failing to implement European Court of Justice (ECJ) rulings and seeing billions of euros in EU funds frozen due to concerns over the independence of the judiciary.

In its report for Poland, the European Commission says that recent rulings by the ECJ and European Court of Human Rights have “further confirmed existing concerns”.

These include “serious concerns related to the independence of the National Council for the Judiciary (KRS)”, the body responsible for nominating judges. A number of Polish and European courts have found it to have been rendered illegitimate by government reforms that brought it under greater political control.

“There are also serious doubts as to the compliance of a number of Supreme Court judges with the requirement of a tribunal established by law,” adds the report. That court has been locked in a dispute between its “old” judges, nominated by the previous KRS, who refuse to sit alongside colleagues appointed after it was reformed.

Meanwhile, “a number of judges continued [this year] to be subject to disciplinary investigations and proceedings related to the content of their judicial decisions and forced transfers”, added the commission, which has repeatedly voiced concerns over the new disciplinary system introduced for judges.

Regarding the media landscape, the commission wrote that, “while legal safeguards for editorial independence are in place, there are claims of political
influence over the media in practice”.

It noted particular concerns over “the independent governance and editorial independence of public service media”, with “no progress on…taking into account European standards”. Under the current government, public media have become a mouthpiece for the ruling party.

The report also referred to the recent law creating a new commission investigating Russian influence, which has the power to ban politicians from public office. The commission recently launched legal proceedings against Poland over the body, which many fear will be used against the opposition ahead of this year’s elections.

Shortly after signing the Russian influence commission into law, President Andrzej Duda, a government ally, proposed amendments that would reduce its powers. Those have been approved by the lower house of parliament, where the government has a majority, but are still being considered by the upper house.

A wide range of Polish and international expert bodies have found that the policies pursued by the ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party have severely undermined the rule of law in Poland. Polling shows that most of the Polish public agree.

Poland’s government, however, has consistently denied that its policies have threatened the rule of law. It argues that the reforms it has undertaken are designed to increase the accountability of judges and make the system more efficient, and accuses the EU of making politically motivated criticism of them.

“This year’s European Commission rule of law report, like every year, is biased, based solely on the opinions of the opposition in Poland,” tweeted deputy justice minister Sebastian Kaleta. “It is another attempt to destroy the image of Poland based on false allegations…[and] double standards.”

An opposition MP, Krzysztof Śmiszek of The Left (Lewica), told broadcaster TVN that, with elections approaching this autumn, the report will be used by the government to claim that “again, this evil EU is stigmatising and discriminating against Poles”.

Main image credit: CC-BY-4.0: © European Union 2021 – Source: EP

Alicja Ptak

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