The EU Court of Justice (CJEU) once again agrees European Commission and confirm judicial system reform Approved by the ultra-conservative party-led government in Poland December 2019 Law and Justice (PiS) violates your rights European Union. “Today is an important day for the restoration of independent justice in Poland. The CJEU approved a new analysis of the Polish judicial law of December 2019. This law violates the basic principles of the EU legal order. Now we hope that Poland will comply fully with the sentence”, celebrated the justice commissioner, Didier Reynders.
According to the Commission, Polish law authorizes the disciplinary chamber of the Polish Supreme Court, whose independence and impartiality are not guaranteed, to decide on matters affecting the statute. judges and its use with things that affect its functions Judicial Independence. In addition, the law prohibits all national courts from verifying compliance with Union requirements and classifies this verification as a disciplinary offence. Finally, the law that obliges judges to provide information about their activities in associations or foundations and their past political affiliations and orders the publication of this information violates the right to respect for privacy and the right to respect for privacy. right to protection personal information.
All these allegations were taken up by European judges who convicted Poland in July 2021. A few months later, and after verification of the non-compliance, the order of the Vice-President of the CJEU imposed a daily fine of one million euros for non-compliance, until today and until April 21st. more than 500 million. Realizing that Warsaw was taking steps in the right direction that day, the judges reduced the daily amount payable to 500,000 euros until the date of the final sentence (this Monday).
no independence
This Monday’s decision once again agrees with the Community Steering Committee, concluding that the disciplinary chamber of the Supreme Court “did not meet the requirement of independence and impartiality”. In addition, the judges consider that the fact that judges with the power to enforce Union law run the risk of deciding on matters relating to the statute of the body in question and to the performance of their duties may affect their independence.
The CJEU also considers the fact that the measures adopted by the Polish legislator are inconsistent with the guarantees of access to an independent, impartial tribunal previously established by law, and that the law attributes to a single national body the power to verify the conformity of the essential elements. effective judicial protection requirements are “contrary to the Law of the Union”.
Finally, the European court found that national provisions obliging judges to make a statement written statement to which they have declared their membership association, non-profit foundation or political party and that posting this information online violates these judges’ fundamental rights, such as the protection of personal data and respect for private life. They concluded that “publishing data on past membership of a political party online is not appropriate to achieve the purpose called for to reinforce the impartiality of judges”, recalling data on judges’ membership in associations or non-associations. for-profit foundations may disclose their religious, political or philosophical beliefs.
“Publication of this data online may allow free access to such data to persons seeking information about the personal situation of the judge in question for reasons unrelated to the object of general interest sought” and “the online publication has the capacity to disclose judges” to both litigants and the general public. risk being unduly stigmatized, which unfairly affects his perception of them”.