Poland’s new centre-left government’s judicial reforms continue to face stiff resistance from the country’s conservatives, who have been voted out of office.
President Andrzej Duda, the last representative of the former ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party with powers, has forwarded the changes in the new government to the National Council for the Judiciary and the Constitutional Court for review.
The move was announced Friday by Duda’s head of the Warsaw Chancellery, Malgorzata Paprocka, who had called the new regulation “clearly unconstitutional” in July. The law cannot enter into force without Duda’s signature.
The National Council for the Judiciary in Poland nominates judges for vacant positions and protects the independence of the courts. In 2018, the PiS government decided that 15 of the council’s 25 members should be appointed by parliament – previously, judges determined the majority of members.
This brought Poland into conflict with the European Commission. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) also criticised the fact that the National Council of the Judiciary was no longer independent.
The EU has halted its proceedings against Poland because the new government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk has promised to restore the independence of the judiciary.
The road to this is long and difficult, however. In the future, the judiciary will again fill 15 of the 25 positions in the National Council of Justice through free elections.
According to the reform, council members appointed since 2017 will no longer be eligible for election. Duda disagrees, saying there is no reason to exclude judges from election based on their appointment date.
