In a letter to the speaker of the Polish parliament, sent on 31 March and published on 3 April, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muiznieks calls on the Polish parliament to reject the amendments to the Act on the National Council for the Judiciary, fearing that they will “encroach on the independence of the judiciary”.
Muiznieks says that the amendments would give parliament the power to appoint the judges who sit on the National Council for the Judiciary, which would mean shortening the term of office of the current members of the Council. By granting the executive and the legislature a decisive role in the appointment of the judges, Poland would contravene the well-established constitutional principles of the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary, he states.
The commissioner argues, therefore, that “the selection of members of the judiciary should be a decision process wholly independent of the government, so as to stave off the risk of any undue political influence”. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)