The Constitutional Court on Tuesday postponed until December 11 the announcement of the ruling on the EU regulations on the basis of which the Court of Justice of the EU imposed fines on Poland. The hearing on the amendment of the Supreme Court Act was also postponed until the same day.
Regarding the issue of the penalties imposed on Poland by the CJEU, the full Constitutional Tribunal concluded its hearing on November 21 this year. and postponed the delivery of the ruling – originally until November 30. However, on that day, the announcement of the verdict was postponed until Tuesday, December 5, at 11 am.
Hearing postponed
In turn, the hearing of the Full Session of the Constitutional Court on the amendment of the Law on the Supreme Court at the request of President Andrzej Duda was originally scheduled for Wednesday, December 6 at 12.
Today information appeared on the docket of the Constitutional Court that both cases had been postponed until Monday, December 11. The announcement of the ruling on the sanctions imposed by the CJEU is scheduled for 11, and the hearing on the amendment of the Supreme Court law on 12.
As the Office of the Constitutional Court informed PAP, the change in dates is related to sick leave and justified absence of one of the judges of the Constitutional Court.
The Tribunal began examining the case of sanctions imposed by the CJEU on October 19 last year. The full bench of the Constitutional Court in this case is chaired by the President of the Tribunal, Julia Przyłębska, and the rapporteur is Judge Zbigniew Jędrzejewski. The dates of the hearings were subsequently postponed several times.
judgment of the CJEU
There has been a dispute for months at the Constitutional Court over the tenure of Julia Przyłębska as President of the Tribunal, making it difficult for the Tribunal to meet its full bench of at least eleven judges. November 21 this year However, eleven of the fifteen judges of the Tribunal entered the chamber of the Constitutional Tribunal, i.e. the number necessary to hold a sitting of the Full Court.
An application to the Constitutional Court regarding the penalties imposed on Poland in November 2021 was filed by Attorney General Zbigniew Ziobro, who demands that the regulations of EU law regarding these issues be declared unconstitutional. The application was filed after the CJEU imposed two financial sanctions on Poland – regarding the Turów mine and the then Supreme Court Disciplinary Chamber.
In his petition to the Constitutional Court, Ziobro requested an investigation into the constitutionality of art. 279 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, insofar as “the CJEU accepts that this provision authorizes the imposition of financial sanctions for failure to comply with the interim measure imposed.” He also challenged art. 39 of the Statute of the CJEU, which authorizes the President of the CJEU or a judge of that tribunal to impose interim measures on a Member State with regard to the form of the system and the functioning of the constitutional bodies of the Republic of Poland.
Amending the Supreme Court Act
The issue of amending the Supreme Court law was in turn brought before the Constitutional Court in February this year. President Andrzej Duda referred the January amendment to the Rules of the Supreme Court to the Tribunal in the context of the preventive review procedure. This amendment, according to PiS, was intended to fulfill an important “milestone” for the European Commission to release funds for the implementation of the National Reconstruction Plan. At the same time, the president appealed to the judges of the Constitutional Court to hear the case immediately.
In his motion, the president asked the Constitutional Court to examine the constitutionality of, among other things, a number of provisions on the so-called judicial independence test and the transfer of disciplinary and immunity cases of judges to the High Administrative Court. The presidential motion also asked, among other things, the following questions: provisions allowing applications for the reopening of legally closed disciplinary and immunity cases, as well as the vacatio legis provided for in this amendment, set at 21 days.
The full panel in this case is chaired by the President of the Constitutional Court, Julia Przyłębska, and the rapporteur of the case is Judge Bartłomiej Sochański.
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Source: wPolityce