Poland weighs how to vote on the Constitutional Court amendment
Sovereign Poland has not yet decided its position on the draft amendment to the law governing the Constitutional Court. The proposal, submitted by PiS deputies, aims to reduce the number of judges required for a full court session.
The draft amends the Law on the Organization and Procedure of the Constitutional Tribunal. It proposes lowering the minimum number of judges for the General Assembly from 10 to nine and cutting the number of full tribunals from 11 to nine. The changes would apply to proceedings started but not completed before the amendment took effect. On Tuesday afternoon, the parliamentary committee on justice and human rights was set to discuss the project.
Deputy Justice Minister Sebastian Kaleta announced that Sovereign Poland is analyzing the proposal and weighing its potential effects, adding that no decision had been made yet.
Kaleta noted that the draft contains several articles. When asked what Sovereign Poland aims to achieve, he replied that the law could have 200 articles with limited systemic, social, and economic effects, or a single article with wide-reaching consequences. He underscored that this is not a trivial matter.
Gosek: support for the project is possible
Mariusz Gosek, a Member of Parliament for Sovereign Poland, told Gazeta Wyborcza that he would support the PiS project. He specified that his stance represents him as a Sovereign Poland politician, not the party’s formal position, which would be announced if the party board decides to adopt one.
Gosek emphasized that the final party position would come after a formal process within the party’s leadership.
According to the Sejm, the Committee on Justice and Human Rights planned to consider the draft on Tuesday at 8 p.m. and again on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.
The tenure of Julia Przyłębska and ongoing tribunal debates
Disputes over the term of office for Julia Przyłębska, the president of the Constitutional Tribunal, have stalled full Tribunal sessions for months. Some lawyers, including former and current judges, contend that Przyłębska’s term as president expired after six years, on December 20, 2022, and that she cannot reapply for the post. Przyłębska, along with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and several experts, argues that her term as a judge will end in December 2024, and that she will not serve as president beyond that date.
In January, six judges, including Vice President Mariusz Muszyński, sent a letter urging Przyłębska and President Andrzej Duda to convene the General Assembly of Judges to nominate candidates for the presidency. By early March, the Tribunal’s Press Service announced that Przyłębska had convened the Assembly, which decided that there was no grounds to hold a meeting to nominate a new president.
The Constitutional Tribunal set May 31 as the date to hear the amendment to the Supreme Court law. PiS argues the change serves a key milestone for the European Commission to release funds tied to the Financial Protocol Agreement (FPA). The FPA includes provisions that disciplinary and immunity cases involving judges should be decided by the Supreme Administrative Court rather than the Chamber of Professional Responsibility of the Supreme Court. In February, the president proposed reviewing the constitutionality of the amendment through preventive scrutiny at the Constitutional Court.
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Source: wPolityce