As it announced on 26 July, the European Commission took action against Poland on Saturday 29 July, opening infringement proceedings against the state following the publication of the law on the organisation of common law courts in the Polish Official Gazette, on Friday 28 July (see EUROPE 11837). On Wednesday of last week, the Commission explained that it would send this formal notice to the Polish authorities if and when the law was published in the Gazette.
On Wednesday, it also said that it would use the notice letter to air other concerns raised by the law to do with the rule of law. The Polish authorities now have one month to respond to this letter of formal notice.
As regards the infringement in itself, the main point of this law of concern to the Commission concerns discrimination based on sex, due to the introduction of different retirement ages for female judges (60) and male ones (65). Such a distinction runs counter to article 157 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and to Directive 2006/54 on equal treatment between men and women in employment matters, the institution explained in a press release.
In its letter, the Commission also expressed its concerns that the independence of the Polish courts could be compromised by giving the Justice Minister discretionary powers to extend the mandate of judges who have reached retirement age, and to dismiss and appoint court presidents.
The new rules, the Commission explains, give the justice minister a certain influence over the judges in common law courts, for instance through vague criteria governing the prolongation of their mandate, which breaches the principal of the absolute security of judges' office.
As well as reducing the retirement age, this law allows the justice minister to extend the terms of female judges by ten years and that of their male counterparts by five years. Furthermore, there is no deadline for the Minister to decide on whether to prolong the mandate, which means that the holder of this office will retain influence over the judges in question until the very end of their terms.
On Friday 28 July, the First Vice-Minister of the Commission also wrote to the Polish Foreign Minister, renewing the invitation for the Foreign Minister and Justice minister of Poland to meet in Brussels as soon as possible in order to relaunch dialogue.
The Commission's move has come under fire from Warsaw. The Polish Presidency has reacted by declaring that the Commission does not have the competence required to launch these proceedings. “The Commission is trying to find pretexts to prove that it has competence on questions on which it very clearly does not”, Krzysztof Szczerski, the Head of the Cabinet of President Andrzej Duda, told the press agency PAP. Duda, incidentally, individually vetoed two of the laws that are being monitored by the Commission. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)