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Central Europe
December 1, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 13
Duda’s bill on the judge-appointing body KRS is deemed not to change much in comparison to the party-sponsored bill that the president blocked, however.
The proposal retains PiS’ main provision, which is to establish political control over nominat-
ing members of KRS. It enforces some degree of cooperation in the parliament by requiring KRS nominations to pass with a three-fifths major- ity, which PiS does not have. The party is strong enough to ensure that majority of the new KRS members will have its backing anyway.
The details of the Supreme Court bill are unclear. The proposal seeks to retire Supreme Court judg- es aged 65 or more unless the president agrees they can continue work. That move is unconstitu- tional, experts claim.
But the final shape of the proposal will only be clearer this week when details are tabled before the parliamentary commission that has taken over work on the bill following the first vote in the
plenary. Duda and PiS have been negotiating them in confidence in the past weeks.
The reform of the judiciary has topped PiS’ agen- da since the victorious election of 2015. The ruling party claims the Polish judiciary is in need of a thorough reform to curb “corporatism” of judges and make the system work better for citizens, for example by shortening procedures and the time it takes to close cases.
PiS has rejected the EU’s reservations about the reform being unconstitutional and a threat to de- mocracy and human rights in Poland.
There were new protests against the reform in Warsaw and over 100 other cities and town across Poland during the weekend. They lacked strength of the summer demonstrations, however, which gathered tens of thousands. A rally in front of the presidential palace in Warsaw attracted an esti- mated 1,500-3,000 people.