In an open letter, thirteen civic society organisations write to the Senate requesting an urgent opinion from the Venice Commission on the latest amendment to the Act on the Supreme Court

Despite losing the vote in the Sejm committee, PiS is pushing for the appointment of a verification commission regarding Russian influence. According to the opposition, this is an attempt to set up a kangaroo court before the elections.

“We negatively assess the member’s bill on the amendments to the Act on the Supreme Court (Sejm form 2870), which is intended to implement the “milestones” required for releasing the funds for the National Recovery Plan” – position of administrative courts judges on the proposed changes to judiciary.

‘The whole of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal has lost its ability to adjudicate lawfully,’ held the Supreme Administrative Court.

Zbigniew Ziobro’s schoolmate and simultaneously the head of the politicised NCJ, Dagmara Pawełczyk-Woicka, will not have to pay a fine. The decision was made in bizarre circumstances, with one of the judges reporting the suspicion of the court ruling having been illegally influenced.

It is clear to us that ODIHR should devote the maximum possible time and effort to observing the parliamentary election next year in Poland including on election day. Given that the election campaign has already begun, this overview could, as much as possible, include political processes taking place before the official start of the campaign – 13 Polish NGOs call on OSCE/ODIHR to monitor 2023 elections

No representative of any non-governmental organisation supporting the authorities was chosen for the National Recovery Plan Monitoring Committee, which is supposed to supervise the spending of EU money. So the Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy decided to re-select its members from the beginning.

The electoral process is overseen by all courts – from district courts to the Supreme Court. And they are all tainted by their unconstitutional design and staffed by the politicised National Council of the Judiciary, so they do not provide basic guarantees of fair and honest voting.

‘This is a show of contempt for the work we do. The authorities are proving that they can do anything they like with a judge,’ commented Judge Marzanna Piekarska-Drążek of the Court of Appeal in Warsaw in an interview with Onet on the decision to move her to the labour and social insurance division after 30 years of adjudicating in the criminal division. On Monday, after returning from her holiday, she found out that she is to work in a completely different place from next week.

‘We have really demonstrated maximum goodwill. From the point of view of the treaties, we are under no obligation to listen to the Union on the justice system. None whatsoever,’ said Jarosław Kaczyński, when asked about the ‘milestones’ in the National Recovery Plan during a successive pre-election meeting.