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November 23, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 2
Poland’s PiS backtracks on reforms that created rift with Brussels
PiS had earlier called criticism of the Supreme Court reform “groundless” and “an attack on Poland”.
The ruling party forced the contested
reform through earlier this year, reducing the retirement age of Supreme Court judges from 70 to 65, thus forcing more than one-third of the court’s line-up — including its president Malgorzata Gersdorf — into retirement.
PiS planned to fill the vacancies with loyalist judg- es recommended by the KRS, a judge-appointing body that the ruling party also took over.
Gersdorf described the move as a “purge” and refused to quit.
The reform landed Warsaw before the judges of the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice (ECJ). It also spurred a probe from the European Commission, which has called for the suspension of Poland’s voting rights in the EU.
The ECJ said in an interim ruling issued in October that Poland must suspend the application of the
reform. The final ruling will come at a later date.
PiS’ rushing to pass legislation to reverse the Su- preme Court reform does not necessarily mean the Commission will now drop the case against Poland in the ECJ, however, some legal experts claim.
PiS’ backtracking on the reform also appears to contain provisions that could still allow the party to exert control over Poland’s top court.
“PiS still can increase the number of judges in the Supreme Court and discourage the judges who retired in effect of the reform from returning to work by offering them full remuneration during retirement,” law professor Ewa Letowska, former ombudswoman and a former judge of the Consti- tutional Tribunal, told news website OKO Press.
The party also looks set to retain control over the KRS to ensure any vacancies in the Supreme Court and other courts are filled by loyalists.
PiS also does not rule out going back to interfering with the Supreme Court some time in the future.
“We decided that the compromise, which is the partial withdrawal from changes in the Supreme Court, is acceptable. But we may not consider it acceptable next time,” PiS MP Marcin Horala told Radio Plus.