By adopting the new disciplinary regime applicable to judges of the Polish Supreme Court and judges of ordinary courts, Poland has failed to fulfil its obligations deriving from European Union law, the Court of Justice of the EU ruled on Thursday 15 July (Case C-791/19).
Based on the Opinion of the Advocate General (see EUROPE 12714/17), the Court accepted all the objections raised by the European Commission (see EUROPE 12403/23).
In particular, the European judge is of the opinion that the establishment of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Polish Supreme Court does not provide all the guarantees of impartiality and independence from political power. In particular, the National Council of the Judiciary, which appoints the members of this Disciplinary Chamber, has been heavily reorganised by the Polish executive and legislative powers and its independence may give rise to reasonable doubts.
Furthermore, the disciplinary regime could be used for political purposes, because the content of judicial decisions taken by judges of ordinary courts is likely to be classified as a disciplinary offence.
In addition, national judges may be exposed to disciplinary proceedings because they have decided to make a reference for a preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice of the EU. Such a situation, in the Court’s view, undermines the right, indeed the obligation, of Polish judges to refer to the Court of Justice in order to secure unity in the interpretation of EU law and to ensure the full effect of that law.
See the Court’s judgment: https://bit.ly/3xGUE1e
On Thursday, the European Commission reiterated its “concerns about the state of the Rule of law in Poland”.
It criticised the previous day’s ruling by the Polish Constitutional Court that interim measures ordered by the EU Court of Justice in the judicial field are inconsistent with the Polish Constitution (see EUROPE 12762/23).
“The European Commission reaffirms once more: the EU law has primacy over national law. And all decisions by the European Court of Justice, including orders for interim measures, are binding on Member States authorities and national courts”, stressed its spokesman, Eric Mamer. This includes the Court’s order the previous day on the Polish ‘muzzle law’ on the disciplinary regime for Polish judges in another case (C-204/21).
Mr Mamer assured that “the Commission will not hesitate to make use of its powers under the treaties to safeguard the uniform application and integrity of EU law”.
He did not rule out a link between this case and the Commission’s ongoing assessment of the Polish recovery plan. The proper implementation of national recovery plans requires Member States to have adequate management and control systems in place and the Commission is analysing the Polish Constitutional Court ruling “also in that light”, he said. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)