European Court of Justice: Another judgment against Poland’s judicial reform

The European Court of Justice has once again declared a regulation in the current Polish judicial system to be inadmissible. After the reform, the justice minister had too much power – that was against EU law.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has once again declared a regulation in the current Polish judicial system to be inadmissible. The Polish regulation, according to which the Minister of Justice, who also acts as Public Prosecutor, can delegate judges to higher courts and recall them from there at any time, violates EU law, the ECJ announced. It must be ensured that such a delegation never serves as an instrument for the political control of court decisions.

Specifically, there were seven criminal trials. The Warsaw District Court, which is hearing the cases, asked the ECJ to interpret EU law. It saw the regulation as a possible threat to judicial independence. The ECJ has now confirmed this.

According to the ECJ, the rule means that the seconded judges do not have the guarantees and independence that a judge in a constitutional state should normally have for the duration of the secondment. According to the judgment, it cannot therefore be ruled out that the regulation will be used as an instrument for political control of the content of judicial decisions.

Judicial reform has long been the subject of criticism

The ECJ had already ruled several times that parts of the Polish judicial reform violated European law. Most recently, at the end of October, he imposed a daily fine of one million euros on Poland for failing to implement an earlier judgment on controversial judicial reforms. Specifically, it was particularly about the order to stop the work of the disciplinary body to punish judges. According to ECJ rulings, the activity is not compatible with EU rules on the independence and impartiality of the judiciary.

The way Poland’s national-conservative PiS government has dealt with the country’s judicial system has been heavily criticized for years. The government in Warsaw, and especially Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, have so far not given any signals on the crucial points. Ziobro is also the architect of judicial reforms.

Within the national-conservative PiS government of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, he has made a name for himself as an anti-European, right-wing hardliner. He argues that his reforms are necessary to make the Polish judicial system more efficient and also to free it from judges who were shaped under communism.