Warsaw, 23 May 2020 In recent days, we have been dealing with events in the Supreme Court whose formal objective was to select five candidates for the position of the First President of the Supreme Court. In fact, the aim was to include among the candidates a person who, prior to the General Assembly meeting, had already been decided by the decision-makers to hold this position. This is demonstrated by the following circumstances, in addition to the recent changes to the provisions of the Supre...

"Today's CJEU decision not only clearly prohibits the Polish government to illegally repress judges, by suspending the so-called Disciplinary Chamber, but has a much broader effect - it should close the way for abuse of the arbitrary recognition of the elections validity” - Professor Krystian Markiewicz President of the Association of Polish Judges Iustitia. Today, on 8 April 2020. The Court of Justice of the European Union (Grand Chamber)granted the Commission's application for interim ...

It is the official position of the Board of the Polish Judges’ Association ‘Iustitia’ that the real purpose of this legislation (here also referred to as the New Law) is to ultimately subordinate the judiciary to the political power. The legislation deprives judges of their independence, as under a threat of expulsion from the office, they are prohibited from applying the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union of November 2019. This constitutes a breach of Poland’s commi...

Timmermans lobbied MEPs on the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) to support the European Commission’s proposal to combine the application of the rule of law with access to EU funds. “The European Commission calls on the Council and Parliament to rapidly adopt the regulation on the adoption of the protection of the EU’s budget in connection to the rule of law,” Timmermans urged MEPs. The European Parliament has long been demanding the ...

When the final decision has been given by the Supreme Administrative Court of Poland on the 28th of June, 2019 lists of supporters of the neo-National Council of Judiciary of Poland (neo-NCJ) should have been disclosed immediately by the Polish Speaker of the Parliament Office. Since the Supreme Administrative Court of Poland has pointed out that the access to public information is guaranteed in article 61 of Polish Constitution and its restriction can only take place “due to the prot...

In a letter dated 8 August the ENCJ Board called upon the Polish Parliament, the Sejm, to make the support lists of the judicial members of the KRS publis as has been ordered by the Supreme Administrative Court of Poland in a recent judgement. The Executive Board of the ENCJ is of the opinion that it is of essential importance that the lists will be published as soon as possible. See the letter and the position paper of the Executive Board of last year.  This...