According to the Supreme Audit Office, Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro gave out hundreds of millions of zlotys from the Justice Fund wastefully, inexpediently and without control. ‘He did not react to conflicts of interest and corruption mechanisms,’ the auditors found.

Ombudsman Adam Bodnar was defending Poland’s place in the legal order of the EU at the Tribunal. Meanwhile, the President, the Prosecutor General and the Sejm agree with Minister Morawiecki’s motion to the Constitutional Tribunal. The hearing was adjourned until Thursday 15 July at 1 p.m.

The National Prosecutor’s Office has requested that three ‘old’ judges of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court be stripped of their immunity. They are to answer for the negligence of Supreme Court employees.

The National Prosecutor’s Office has unexpectedly asked the illegal Disciplinary Chamber to lift the immunity of three judges of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court. The list includes Professor Włodzimierz Wróbel, a fierce critic of the ‘good change’ in the courts and Małgorzata Manowska’s counter-candidate for the office of president of the Supreme Court. The prosecutor’s office wants to charge them for the mistakes of the employees of the Supreme Court.

‘The declaration of the European Council was purely a face-saving document for domestic use in Poland and Hungary. There are 11 points on the rule of law issue. Not a single one of these points changed the rule of law legislation,’ says Petri Sarvamaa, Finnish MEP of the European People’s Party (EPP)

It is still not too late. We call on the Law and Justice government to come to its senses. They have driven to the brink of the abyss. Will they have the common sense to step back? Or will they jump, taking the whole country with them?

The Hungarian and Polish governments are united in defending their autocratizing political models, whatever it takes politically. However, there is also a significant difference between Poland and Hungary. While Poland is largely free from large-scale, systemic corruption plaguing EU funds, the Hungarian regime’s political-economic model is based on state-led, centralized corruption structures and the deliberate misuse of EU funds.

The chief disciplinary commissioner, Piotr Schab, has been nominated to the office of president of the Regional Court in Warsaw. Schab is known for prosecuting independent judges. If this information is officially confirmed, it will mean a stricter course for Poland’s largest court.

Increasingly more people are involved in prosecuting and repressing independent judges. Not only have other judges joined Schab’s, Radzik’s and Lasota’s team of disciplinary commissioners, but so have assistants. The costs of employing them are also increasing, because they spent PLN 156,000 on travel and accommodation alone last year.

Tomasz Kosakowski donated 12,500 zlotys to the PiS election fund and has just been appointed a judge by President Andrzej Duda. His former partner from the law firm paid 25,000 zlotys to the fund and is now applying for a position in the administrative court