The defenders of the rule of law denounce a “harmful compromise” between the European Commission and the national conservative power.
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It is the epilogue of a incredible political soap opera which will leave traces in European capitals. The Diet of Poland adopted, Thursday, May 26, the presidential bill aimed at suppressing the disciplinary chamber of the Supreme Court. This was one of the conditions set by the European Commission to unlock the 36 billion euros from the post-Cavid European recovery plan due to Poland. The windfall has been retained for almost a year due to the refusal of Warsaw to comply with Brussels’s requirements in terms of respect for the rule of law.
Thursday afternoon, even before the vote, the spokesperson for the national conservative majority of the PIS (law and justice), Radoslaw Fogiel, said that the green light from the European executive was acquired. “An agreement has been reached. Negotiations are over, he said. The European Commission has accepted a certain compromise. Poland reforms the disciplinary aspect of its judicial system and the commission will try not to interfere where it does not have skills and should not have it. “The news should be formalized during the visit, on June 2, in Warsaw, of the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
The European executive thus seems to have given in to the pressure resulting from the new geopolitical deal. The Russian-Ukrainian war made Poland, which welcomed nearly 2.5 million refugees on its territory, an essential partner. However, in the opinion of the democratic opposition as associations of magistrates, the presidential bill is far from satisfying the conditions initially set by Brussels. Considered as decadious as soon as it leaves the presidential palace, it was in addition considerably diluted by the parliamentary process and the POS negotiations with the most Europhobic members of its majority.
“Depromis. >
The conditions of Brussels were the abolition of the disciplinary chamber of the Supreme Court, perceived as a tool for political repression of the judges, the rehabilitation of the magistrates who had been sanctioned by this chamber, as well as a reform of the disciplinary system. The defenders of the rule of law are unanimous: none of these three criteria is fully respected in the final text, described as “harmful compromise”.
“The European Commission made a decision where the question of the rule of law was sacrificed on the altar of political considerations. This is a very big problem, regrets Krystian Markiewicz, of the Association of Polish judges Iustitia. If we continue like this, we will soon have law standards worthy of Hungary or Turkey. I wonder if this is what the Commission aims at. “The magistrate maintains that the decision of the Commission goes against judgments rendered both by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and by the European Court of Human Rights. Judges appointed unconstitutionally will always have the right to exercise within the Supreme Court.
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