On Friday 1 August, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the temporary double appointment of judges to different chambers of the Polish Supreme Court does not contravene the requirements of independence and impartiality laid down by EU law (joined cases C-422/23, C-455/23, C-459/23, C-486/23 and C-493/23).
A number of questions were referred to the CJEU for a preliminary ruling on the legitimacy of the composition of the panels of judges within the Civil Chamber, which includes judges temporarily transferred from the Labour and Social Security Chambers.
Imposed for three months by the First President and the President of the Civil Chamber, these appointments had raised doubts about their compatibility with the principles of an independent and impartial court, in particular because of the lack of justification, the lack of consent of the judges concerned and the fact that they were already serving in their original chambers.
However, the Court considers that, under certain conditions, such measures may meet needs relating to the organisation of the judiciary.
It specifies that a temporary designation complies with EU law if it is based on national rules, does not call into question the judge’s chamber of origin, is strictly limited in time, does not constitute a demotion or a sanction and does not concern judges on the basis of their past positions.
It also rejects the argument that the panels are automatically invalid simply because the presidents who made the appointments were appointed under irregular conditions.
Similarly, neither the absence of an effective appeal against the appointment nor the lack of consent of the judges concerned is sufficient to call into question their independence.
The judgment clarifies the conditions of independence with which national courts must comply under Article 19 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
To see the judgment: https://aeur.eu/f/i3c (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)