Wednesday March 31, 2021
“Muzzle Law” for judges
EU sues Poland for judicial reform
Because of the restructuring of the judiciary, Brussels and Warsaw have crossed paths for years. The EU Commission sees the independence of the Polish judges in danger. Because the conservative government does not want to give in, there is now another procedure before the ECJ.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) will deal with another controversial judicial reform of the Polish government. The EU Commission sued Poland for a law to punish judges and applied for its suspension by interim order. Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders spoke of a “serious” threat to the rule of law. Warsaw rejected the criticism as “legally and technically unfounded”.
“The Commission believes that the contested legislation undermines judicial independence in Poland and is incompatible with the primacy of Union law,” said Reynders. Polish judges are threatened with the withdrawal of their immunity by a disciplinary chamber of the Supreme Court, whose “independence and impartiality” is not guaranteed. Polish judges would also be prevented from referring to the ECJ in certain legal proceedings.
The legal text called the “muzzle law” by government opponents has been in force since last February. It provides that Polish judges can be punished for criticizing previous judicial reforms. The national conservative ruling party PiS claims to take action against corruption. The opposition, however, accuses the government of wanting to silence judges.
“Risk of irreparable damage”
The Commission had already contacted Warsaw before the law came into force because of doubts about its legality. The PiS government did not allow itself to be dissuaded from its plans and put the law into effect. Brussels then opened infringement proceedings. The repeatedly expressed concerns have not been allayed, said Reynders. The Commission is now referring to the ECJ in Luxembourg.
There is also “the risk of serious and irreparable damage to the independence of the judiciary in Poland and to the legal order of the Union,” said Reynders. The Commission is therefore applying for an interim order in Luxembourg to prevent the Disciplinary Body from depriving judges of immunity and reversing previous decisions of this kind.
A Polish government spokesman dismissed the Commission’s criticism and the appeal. “The regulation of questions related to the judiciary is an exclusively national domain,” said Piotr Muller on Twitter. “The Polish regulations do not deviate from the EU standards.”
EU: Poland is undermining the separation of powers
The EU Commission has been at odds with Warsaw for years due to various changes in the judiciary. Brussels accuses the right-wing government of systematically curtailing the independence of the judiciary and undermining the separation of powers. A series of infringement proceedings, judgments from Luxembourg and an unprecedented EU criminal case have so far not fundamentally diverted them from their course.
In April 2018, the ECJ had suspended the work of a Polish disciplinary body for judges that was newly established in 2018 until further notice. The verdict is still pending. The Commission is threatening Poland with another lawsuit here because of the inadequate implementation of the ECJ order.
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