Denouncing the interference of the political world in Poland's judicial system, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) voted on Tuesday 28 January in Strasbourg to “open the monitoring procedure in the respect of Poland until the above mentioned concerns are addressed in a satisfactory manner”. The concerns are about the judicial reforms implemented by the ultra-conservative Polish government led by the Law and Justice Party (PiS).
These reforms concern the Public Prosecutor's Office, the National Judicial Council, the ordinary courts and the Supreme Court.
The resolution - adopted by 140 votes in favour, 37 against and 11 abstentions - is based on a report that was agreed in May 2016 in response to reforms launched in 2015. There were many delays due to changes in rapporteurs before Dutch MEP Pieter Omtzigt (EPP) and Swedish MEP Azadeh Rohjan Gustaffson (S&D) produced a final version which was debated by the Assembly.
Both rapporteurs deplored the lack of response from the Polish authorities to the five negative opinions published by the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe (see EUROPE 12405/25), as well as the acceleration of reforms in recent weeks.
"The situation of the judicial system in Poland touches every EU country", added Pieter Omtzigt. He cited as an example the European arrest warrant, which is based, within the EU Member States, on confidence in the impartiality of decisions taken at national level. "The common legal space in Europe is at stake and PACE is a suitable legal forum to discuss it", added Krystof Śmiszek, Polish Socialist.
The Polish Conservatives, for their part, were vehemently opposed to the report and the resolution, as was the Hungarian Zsolt Csenger-Zalán, who had announced as early as this morning that his national delegation in the EPP would vote against it.
The monitoring procedure aims to ensure compliance with the obligations entered into by member states under the Statute of the Council of Europe and its conventions, including the European Convention on Human Rights. If the recommendations of the Monitoring Committee are not observed by the State concerned, that State may, in the long term, see the powers of its national delegation disputed or cancelled. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)