Polish president axes judge disciplinary system

• Andrzej Duda signs into law scrapping controversial disciplinary chamber for judges.
• Poland’s lower house of parliament voted to kill the disciplinary chamber last week.
• Judges cannot face disciplinary proceedings for asking the EU Court of Justice.

The dismantling of a contentious Supreme Court disciplinary mechanism for judges, which the European Union said undermined judicial independence, was signed into law by Polish President Andrzej Duda on Monday.

The European Commission had informed Poland that, among other things, it would have to abolish the disciplinary chamber in order to receive blocked post-Covid recovery funds totaling around 35 billion euros ($37 billion).

“Duda has signed into law the bill… to amend the Supreme Court legislation,” the president’s office tweeted.

Duda had proposed the law to scrap the chamber in the hope of drawing a line under the dispute with Brussels.

Poland’s lower house of parliament, which is controlled by the governing conservatives, voted to kill the disciplinary chamber last week.

But the opposition, as well as judges’ groups and other critics, had said the text did not sufficiently address concerns about the politicisation of the judiciary.

The senate, where the opposition has a majority, had introduced changes to that end but the lower house rejected them.

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The European Union and Warsaw have been locked in a long-running tussle over judicial independence and the rule of law in Poland.

The impasse had festered while the EU strived to maintain unity to address the war in Ukraine.

Poland, which borders Ukraine, is on the frontline of the EU solidarity effort.

Poland’s post-Covid economic recovery package had been held up for more than a year over the European Commission’s concerns about judicial independence.

Brussels only approved the recovery package earlier this month.

While on a visit to Warsaw right after, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the EU’s approval of the plan was “important” but only “a first step, as the money will be disbursed when the reforms and investments are in place”.

One condition for Poland to get its Covid recovery cash calls for judges’ disciplinary cases to be heard by a court compliant with EU law that is not the disciplinary chamber.

Another requirement is that judges who have already been subjected to disciplinary chamber rulings have the right to have the decision reviewed by an EU-compliant court “without delay.”

Furthermore, judges cannot face disciplinary proceedings for asking the EU Court of Justice to rule on specific issues.

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