Kaczyński: Constitutional Court's ruling will not be published

Law and Justice (PiS) chairman Jarosław Kaczyński has told at a press conference that Thursday's ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal (TK) concerning the latest bill on the top court will not be published because of the actions of the Tribunal that "essentially do not respect the law." The new bill introduces a series of amendments compared with the previous law passed in December, which was heavily criticized domestically and internationally for breaching democratic standards. The passed amendments include doing away with a requirement for the president to agree for a Constitutional Tribunal judge to be removed, if the Tribunal’s disciplinary court has ruled on such a move, and to not allow the president to motion for a given case to be considered by the Tribunal outside of the chronological order in which cases were submitted. The opposition, however, claims that the new bill breaches the Constitution and doesn't meet recommendations made by the Venice Commission. On Thursday, the Constitutional Tribunal will announce whether the law meets constitutional requirements. "The Constitutional Tribunal doesn't respect the law," said Kaczyński, adding that its acts "are private, which in any case cannot get legal validity through publication." Meanwhile, PiS is preparing a new law that will cut the salaries of the TK's judges by one fifth, from current PLN 25,000 to PLN 20,000 monthly, take away compensation for retired judges and reduce by half the number of people working in the TK's office.