*** modified Wednesday 27 January 14h30 ***
On Tuesday the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a Resolution calling on the Polish authorities to “refrain from applying the provisions of the law of 20 December 2019”, denounced as an attempt to silence critical judges (the so-called “muzzle” law). Poland is also requested to abandon the changes introduced in the functioning of the Constitutional Tribunal and in the system of ordinary justice.
Adopted by 77 votes to 19 with 7 abstentions, this Resolution for the independence of judges in Poland (and Moldova) denounces the “legal chaos” caused by the judicial reform implemented since 2017 by the Law and Justice Party (PiS) and calls for it to be revised to respect fundamental rights and freedoms.
The Polish authorities are invited to engage in a “constructive dialogue” with all stakeholders and to co-operate both with Council of Europe bodies (including the Venice Commission for Democracy through Law) and with the institutions of the European Union.
Based on a report by the Italian Socialist Andrea Orlando, former Minister of Justice, the adoption of this Resolution was preceded by a debate in which Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, herself a former Federal Minister of Justice in Germany, took part. “In Poland, we have seen the transition from an independent judiciary to a judicial system that is expected to implement the will of the government”, she said, before noting that in addition to Poland, against which it had launched infringement proceedings, the European Commission was “watching Hungary, Malta, Bulgaria and Romania very closely”.
Andrea Orlando, for his part, pointed out in his report that Poland is currently the only European Union member state that is subject to a monitoring procedure within the Parliamentary Assembly. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)