EU to launch legal actions against Poland over judiciary reforms

The European Commission announced that it would launch legal action against Poland over an overhaul of its judiciary, and gave Warsaw a month to respond to the concerns. According to Brussels, Polish government’s recent attempts at judiciary reforms undermines the independence of judges and breaks EU rules. Polish government called it “a blackmail” but said that it is open to resolve the dispute. “An independent judiciary is an essential precondition for membership in our Union,” Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker said, adding that, “the EU can therefore not accept a system which allows dismissing judges at will.” “If the Polish government goes ahead with undermining the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law in Poland, we will have no other choice than to trigger Article 7,” he concluded. Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS) government implemented three bills which, according to them, would reform the Polish judiciary system. One bill would force the immediate retirement of all Supreme Court Judges, and replace them with the candidates picked by the justice minister. The second law concerned the National Council of Judiciary (KRS) which would terminate its members' terms with new ones picked by the parliament. The Council has powers to nominate judges, while the Supreme Court confirms the validity of elections, among other tasks. Both of the laws were vetoed by President Andrzej Duda. The third one, which allows the justice minister to appoint judges to lower courts was signed. The attempts to overhaul Polish judiciary sparked days of demonstrations across the country, in which hundreds of thousands of Poles took to the streets in the capital, Warsaw, as well as other towns and cities, and held vigils in front of courthouses. It also drew criticism from the EU and other key Polish allies such as the US.