The Polish parliament voted through a bill that would roll back some of the country’s controversial judicial reforms in a bid to unlock EU cash, frozen over worries in Brussels that the country is out of step with the bloc’s democratic rules. With recovery fund billions on the watchlist, the political fight isn’t over.
It is been reported that the legislation would shift judicial disciplinary matters from the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court, seen as being under the government’s influence, to the Supreme Administrative Court, a top court that is viewed as being more independent. The draft law would also end sanctions against judges who raise questions about the status of fellow judges who have supposedly dubious legal status thanks to the government’s reforms changing how they are appointed.
The measure was approved by 203 MPs, most from the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party. There were 52 votes against and 189 MPs abstained, a sign of the opposition’s reluctance to back a measure they feel still violates the Polish constitution. PiS’s junior partner, the Euroskeptic United Poland party, rejected the bill, saying it’s giving in to blackmail from Brussels.
On the one hand, the EU is contesting the new justice reform, which has changed the procedure for appointing the Polish Supreme Court and would undermine its independence. On the other hand, the Commission considers that:
- EU law takes precedence over national law;
- all judgments of the EU Court are binding on the authorities of the Member States, including courts.
Polish judges, however, disagree: accession to the Union and the signing of treaties, they say, does not mean giving the EU Court supreme legal authority. Above all, it does not mean that Polish sovereignty should be transferred to Brussels.
The government is desperate to see the measure passed, as it’s key to getting €36 billion in grants and loans from the EU’s pandemic relief program, money PiS wants to boost its chances of winning a third term in office in this fall’s parliamentary election. As reported by Politico, the opposition can’t openly reject the bill but is wary of giving its rivals a cash injection.
The action now moves to the upper chamber Senate, where the opposition has a slim majority. If the Senate changes the bill, it will go back to the lower house, where it has to pass by an absolute majority of the chamber’s 460 deputies, something that appears to be a problem for the ruling coalition.
If and when the bill makes it through the legislature, it still has to be signed into law by President Andrzej Duda, who is a PiS ally but who has expressed reservations about the measure, worrying it undermines his prerogative to appoint judges.