The national-conservative government in Poland has been restructuring the country’s judiciary for years, regardless of international criticism. Now the European Court of Justice has ruled against it again.
The European Court of Justice has again clearly called into question the independence of the Polish judiciary.
The circumstances of the appointment of a judge to a chamber at the Supreme Court led to the conclusion that the basic rules for the appointment of judges had been clearly disregarded, said the Court of Justice in Luxembourg. Ultimately, however, a court in Poland would have to decide on this (case C-487/19).
The national-conservative PiS government has been reorganizing the country’s judiciary for years, regardless of international criticism, and is putting judges under pressure. The EU Commission complained against the reforms several times; some of them were overturned by the ECJ. In this case, the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court asked the Court of Justice for interpretation.
The background to the judgment is the case of the Kraków district judge Waldemar Zurek, who is critical of the government and who complained to the Supreme Court of his transfer within the district court. The ECJ judges first found that a non-consensual transfer of judges could violate the principles of the irremovability of judges and judicial independence. Such transfers could therefore control the content of court decisions.
On the other hand, the CJEU commented on the appointment of a judge who had rejected Zurek’s appeal in the Chamber for Extraordinary Review and Public Affairs at the Supreme Court. The judge was appointed by the Polish President Andrzej Duda in 2019 in apparent disregard of the basic rules of the procedure for the appointment of judges at the Supreme Court. Should the Polish court follow the ECJ’s assessment, it should be ruled out that the judge in question could constitute an independent, impartial court previously established by law. In that case, his decision to reject Zurek’s appeal must be considered nonexistent.
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