MPs back a series of changes to new law on Constitutional Tribunal

On Friday, Polish MPs backed a series of changes to the way the country’s powerful Constitutional Tribunal works, an issue that has seen Poland locked in a bitter political row. After parliament backed a string of amendments put forward by the Senate, the new bill will now be submitted to the president for signature. 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. On Thursday, with 66 senators voting for and 29 abstaining, the upper chamber of Polish parliament has passed a new law on the Constitutional Tribunal.