EU court passes judicial independence decision back to Poland
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The EU’s top court questioned whether a new disciplinary body created by Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party would undermine judicial independence, but on Tuesday threw the issue back to Poland’s Supreme Court.
The Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) said the Polish court will have to determine whether the newly created disciplinary chamber for judges is independent of political control.
Three Supreme Court justices had asked the EU court to determine if the disciplinary chamber offered “sufficient guarantees of independence under EU law” to rule whether judges should be reinstated from early retirement.
The verdict is significantly more nuanced than a non-binding opinion issued in June by the EU court’s advocate general, Evgeni Tanchev.
In that opinion, Tanchev said the chamber “does not satisfy the requirements of judicial independence under EU law,” as the body that chooses its members, the National Council of the Judiciary (NCJ), is dependent on the executive and legislative branches of government. He added that the way the NCJ is appointed “discloses deficiencies that appear likely to compromise its independence from the legislative and executive authorities.”
