Remarks by Dr Adam Bodnar, Polish Commissioner for Human Rights, on Human Rights and Solidarity at the University of Connecticut (4 April 2019)

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki compares current judiciary reforms in Poland to legal cleansing in France after the Second World War

The Disciplinary Chamber is populated entirely by justices selected since Law and Justice came to power. In a resolution of 10 April, they declared that the process by which they were appointed was entirely proper. The new members of the Supreme Court are rushing to “legalise themselves” in order to head off the “older” judges, who believe their new counterparts should not be allowed to rule. They were appointed in a faulty process and with the participation of a politicised KRS.

Rights and Values Programme (RVP) fill gaps in the EU’s instruments for protecting the rule of law. Member states must not to be tempted to trade this strategic issue for other, more immediate gains.

Polish judges are again showing the government and the small number of collaborator judges that they will not be broken or be intimidated by disciplinary proceedings.

According to the Court of Justice’s Advocate General, Poland failed to guarantee effective legal protection by lowering the retirement age of Supreme Court judges and granting the President the discretion to prolong their mandate. The AG opinion is not binding on the ECJ, but the bench usually follows its conclusions.

Polish authorities demand that the European Commission withdraw its complaint since the contested provisions are no longer in force.

The European Commission has launched a reflection process on the rule of law in the EU and setting out possible avenues for future action. It outlined three pillars which could contribute to further the effective enforcement of the rule of law in the Union: better promotion, early prevention and tailored reposnse

Through a reorganization of existing courts and the establishment of new ones, the Ministry of Justice will achieve total control over the entirety of the justice system. The reorganization will put all judges under a microscope and facilitate a far-ranging purge of the courts. There may not be enough places for independent-minded judges in the “new” courts, or perhaps they will be exiled someplace far away from their present posts.

Polish constitutional court delivered a ruling concerning the National Council of the Judiciary. The judgement might be crucial for the preliminary reference proceedings pending before the Court of Justice of the EU.