In an urgent opinion delivered on Thursday 16 January, the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission, together with the Directorate General of Human Rights and the Rule of Law, concluded that amendments to the laws on the judiciary in Poland would further undermine the independence of the judiciary in that country.
These amendments, already adopted by the National Parliament (Sejm) on 20 December 2019, are currently under discussion in the Senate, which since November has been chaired by Tomasz Grodzki, the Civic Platform centrist opponent to the conservative government led by Mateusz Morawiecki of the Law and Justice Party (PiS).
The opinion of the Venice Commission was requested by Tomasz Grodzki and prepared before the end of the Senate session on 17 January.
The Council of Europe's constitutional law experts recall their 2017 opinion on Poland, where they already expressed “strong concerns” about the reform of the judicial system initiated by the Polish government. They say that the 2019 amendments, far from resolving the “legal schism” between “old” and “new” judicial institutions, “risk making things worse”.
In effect, the opinion specified that the amendments restrict judges’ freedom of expression and association, prevent them from examining whether other courts in the country are “independent or impartial under European rules” and may subject them to disciplinary proceedings for the implementation of decisions required by the European Court of Human Rights or referring to European Union law and other international instruments.
The independence of the newly created Extraordinary Review and Public Affairs Chamber of the Supreme Court is questioned, not to mention “new disciplinary offences” which “could be subject to subjective interpretation” and “increase the influence of the Minister of Justice on disciplinary proceedings”.
The European Commission has recently asked the EU Court of Justice to stop the work of this chamber (see EUROPE 12403/23).
Another cause for concern is that “the role of the judges in the selection process of the Supreme Court´s First President will be further reduced”, to become a “mere formality”.
The Venice Commission therefore recommends the rejection of these amendments and recommends “finding other solutions” based on its 2017 opinion. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)