The bill amending the Constitutional Tribunal will be considered at the next session of the Sejm. It has no correlation with the date of consideration of the president’s motion regarding the law in the Supreme Court, PiS General Secretary Krzysztof Sobolewski said in an interview with PAP.PL on Tuesday.
On May 4, PiS MPs submitted to the Sejm a draft amendment to the law on the organization and procedure of proceedings before the Constitutional Court, which provides for the reduction of the minimum number of judges of the General Assembly and the full composition of the Constitutional Court. Tribunal for 9 judges. The amended provisions apply to proceedings initiated and not completed before the date of entry into force of the amendment. A dispute has been going on in the Constitutional Tribunal for months over the term of office of Julia Przyłębska as President of the Constitutional Tribunal, which has recently prevented the Tribunal from convening in full (15 people). Krzysztof Sobolewski said in an interview with PAP.PL that “the draft will be processed at the next session of the Sejm and then put to a vote.”
Today, projects related exclusively to agriculture are being processed, with the situation we have in terms of grain, which is a result of the war in Ukraine. We want to settle this with two laws, and that is the only item on the agenda of the Sejm
– added.
The bill on amendments to the Constitutional Tribunal will be considered at the next meeting i.e. May 25-26 and then it will go to the Senate, so it will not be related to the date of consideration of the President’s motion with with regard to the law on the Supreme Court. It won’t have any correlation with the others
he stressed.
Hearing 30 May
The Constitutional Tribunal has set the date of the hearing on the amendment of the Supreme Court law for May 30. The President’s request in this case, submitted under the preventive scrutiny procedure, will be considered by the Full Court Tribunal, chaired by President Julia Przyłębska. At present, an assembly of at least 11 judges of the Constitutional Court is required to hold a full court hearing. However, a dispute has been going on for months in the Constitutional Court over the term of office of Julia Przyłębska as President of the Constitutional Court, which has prevented the Tribunal from convening in full recently.
The draft amendment to the Law on the Organization and Procedure of the Constitutional Court, submitted by PiS, aims – as stated in the explanatory memorandum – to streamline the functioning of the Tribunal by reducing the minimum size of the General Assembly from 2/3 of the number of judges of the Tribunal (i.e. 10 judges) to 9 and the full composition of the Tribunal from 11 to 9 judges. The amended provisions apply to proceedings initiated and not completed before the date of entry into force of the amendment.
On Saturday, the chairman of the Sejm’s Justice and Human Rights Committee, Marek Ast (PiS), told PAP that the committee would begin work on the draft amendment during the Sejm session on May 24-26.
The ongoing dispute at the Constitutional Court is related to the fact that according to some lawyers, including former and current judges of the Constitutional Court, Przyłębska’s term as President of the Constitutional Court expired after six years, i.e. on December 20, 2022, and at the same time she no possibility to reapply for this position. According to Przyłębska herself, as well as Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and some experts, her term of office will expire in December 2024 – with the end of Przyłębska’s term as judge of the Constitutional Tribunal.
READ ALSO: Trial in the Constitutional Tribunal over the power dispute between the president and the Supreme Court canceled. President of the Tribunal: 10 of the 15 judges appeared
mly/PAP
Source: wPolityce