The Committee on Justice has only positively recommended one second reading amendment to the amendment to the law on the Supreme Court, extending the vacatio legis from 14 to 21 days. The committee gave a negative opinion on all the opposition’s amendments.
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The Sejm’s Justice and Human Rights Committee considered the amendments tabled during the second reading of the law on the Supreme Court, which took place on Thursday afternoon.
The vast majority of the 15 amendments received a negative opinion. They are the same amendments that the opposition clubs (KO, Lewica, KP and the Polska 2050 circle) have already tabled in first reading.
The opposition’s amendments entail five changes: transferring disciplinary cases from judges to the Supreme Court, removing the provisions of the so-called of the muzzle law, which gives grounds for prosecuting judges for their sentences, introducing seven years’ seniority for judges in the Supreme Court who would decide disciplinary cases, annul all decisions of the disciplinary chamber, and grant courts and citizens the right to decide whether a judge in a given case is an independent judge, i.e. they extend the independence test contained in the draft law on the Supreme Court.
We have tabled amendments that give a chance to reach KPO funds with 100% certainty
Kamila Gasiuk-Pihowicz (KO), the commission’s vice chair, argued.
In her view, the solutions proposed in the draft Supreme Court bill do not touch the core of the problem – judges who have been appointed with a legal defect by, as she said, the neoKRS. Such judges also sit on the Supreme Administrative Court, which is responsible for hearing disciplinary cases against judges.
The submitted act may not unlock this money from KPO
said the MP.
The committee positively recommended only one amendment, tabled by the PiS club, extending the law’s vacatio legis from 14 to 21 days.
Przemysław Rosati, President of the Supreme Council of Lawyers, participated in the hearing. In his view, the best solution would be to entrust judges’ disciplinary cases to the 6th Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court. According to the Chairman of the Supreme Council, there will be no solution to the problems of the judiciary if the fundamental problem is not solved – the proper formation of the National Council of the Judiciary, which currently consists of 15 selected judges “with the participation of a political factor”.
Vote Friday morning
Vote Friday morning on the bill at the Supreme Court.
Last December 13, PiS deputies submitted to the Sejm a draft amendment to the Supreme Court law, which the authors say should represent an important “milestone” for the European Commission to unblock funds from the KPO. According to this draft, disciplinary and immunity cases of judges will be decided by the Supreme Administrative Court, and not, as is the case with the recently established Chamber of Professional Responsibility of the Supreme Court. The project also extends the scope of the so-called test of independence and impartiality of the judge, which can be initiated not only by the litigant, but also ex officio by the court itself. The draft also supplements the exams during the test, with the starting point being the appointment of a judge “under the law”.
The project’s assumptions were negotiated during the talks of EU Minister Szymon Szynkowski, also known as Sęk, in Brussels. The Sejm was due to consider the bill in December last year, but it was taken off the agenda. Earlier, President Andrzej Duda stated that he had not participated in the preparation of the project nor had he been consulted. He called for calm and constructive parliamentary work on the bill and stressed that he would not agree to solutions that undermine the constitutional system and that he would not allow legal acts to be introduced into the Polish legal system that would undermine judicial appointments or would enable verify them.
The coalition partner of PiS – Solidarna Polska speaks negatively about the project. Opposition clubs are not ruling out supporting the bill, according to PO leader Donald Tusk’s statement, even if their amendments are not taken into account.
mly/PAP
Source: wPolityce