Polish parliament passes bill reversing previous government's judicial council reforms

The ruling majority in parliament has approved a bill that the government says will restore the independence of the body responsible for appointing judges, which was under greater political control under the previous Law and Justice (PiS) government.

The National Judicial Council (KRS) was at the center of the rule of law crisis that occurred during PiS's eight-year rule. Judgments by various Polish and European courts have found that PiS's reforms have made the group no longer legitimate, thereby also calling into question the thousands of judges appointed through it.

The proposed bill would reinstate the previous procedure in which the majority of KRS members were secretly elected and direct elections were held among the judges themselves. PiS changed the system and instead gave politicians the power to elect most of the organization's members.

In a vote Friday afternoon, the bill was approved by a 244-vote majority in the more powerful lower house, the 460-seat Sejm, all from the ruling coalition. The 199 votes against came from PiS and the coalition of far-right parties (Konfederacja).

“Thanks to this bill, we can free the KRS from political pressure,” Michał Ščerva, an MP from Prime Minister Donald Tusk's Citizens United (KO) group, wrote in X after the bill was passed. Ta. “The people will get back an independent and impartial judiciary.”

The bill now goes to the upper house of parliament, where the government also has a majority. But once approved by parliament, the bill will be passed to President Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally who was closely involved in the previous government's judicial reforms. He has the power to veto laws.

Depoliticizing the KRS was a central promise made by the new government, which took over from PiS in December 2023. It was also a request by the European Commission to release Polish funds frozen over rule of law concerns.

In 2019, Poland's Supreme Court ruled that PiS' reforms had made the KRS “dependent on administrative authorities” and “not an impartial and independent institution.” In 2022, the same court ruled that KRS was no longer consistent with its constitutional role.

In 2021, the European Court of Human Rights similarly found that the KRS, after an overhaul, was no longer independent of legislative and executive powers. In the same year, Poland became the first country to be expelled from the European Council of Justice Network.

The shortcomings of the KRS also had ramifications, as they called into question the legitimacy of thousands of judges appointed through the KRS after PiS's reforms.

Under the government's new bill, 15 of the 25 members of the KRS will be judges elected by vote among other judges. This would reverse the situation introduced by PiS, in which council members were elected by Seim.

According to the new bill, of these 15 members, there will be one member from the Supreme Court, two members from the Court of Appeals, three members from the District Courts, six members from the District Courts, and one each from the Military Court, the Supreme Administrative Court, and the District Court. Name by name. Administrative court.

Candidate applications are reviewed by the National Election Commission (PKW), which conducts the elections. Candidates must go through a hearing process where they are questioned.

Once members are elected based on the new procedures, members currently in place based on the procedures introduced by PiS will be removed and replaced.

The proposed bill also includes the creation of an advisory body, the Social Council, aimed at ensuring the open participation of private and professional organizations in judicial reform.

Even if the bill becomes law, it remains unclear what will happen to the thousands of judges appointed by the flawed KRS. Deputy Minister of Justice Dariush Mazur told broadcaster TVP Info on Friday that further legislation on the issue would be submitted before the summer holidays.

But he said that “at this point” Justice Minister Adam Bodnar's preferred option is to reinstate the “erroneously appointed” judges to their previous positions.

Mazur also noted that “there is still a lot to continue to work on” when it comes to addressing eight years of judicial reforms introduced by PiS, including new laws planned for the Supreme Court and the General Courts.

However, the government's actions were criticized by Sebastian Caleta, who served as deputy justice minister in the PiS-led government and is now an opposition lawmaker.

“The bill on the KRS adopted by Seim is nothing but a return to the judicial system,” he wrote about mentioned.

“[Letting] Kaleta added: “Some Polish judges have already declared that they are above all 'European', so such a model would simply give the EU control over our judiciary. “means,” he claimed. ”.

Notes from Poland is published by an independent nonprofit foundation, run by a small editorial team and funded by donations from readers. Our activities would not be possible without your support.

Main image credit: Grzegorz Krzyżewski/BRPO (based on CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)

Agata Pyka is an assistant editor at Notes in Poland. She is a journalist and a political communication student at the University of Amsterdam. She specializes in Polish and European politics and investigative reporting, and has previously written for Euractiv and The European Correspondent.