Venice Commission investigates Polish judiciary

On September 12, the three delegates of the Venice Commission, an international watchdog and advisory group to the Council of Europe, started a two-day visit to Warsaw to probe the Constitutional Tribunal and "judiciary atmosphere" in Poland. The program of the visit includes meetings at the Supreme Court, Parliament, the Ministry of Justice, the Constitutional Tribunal, the Ombudsman and the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, a statement read. According to a letter sent to the PAP news agency, six Constitutional Tribunal judges who were sworn in by the governing Law and Justice (PiS) party in December and in April, refused to meet with the three members of the Venice Commission. Meanwhile, the head of the PiS parliamentary party Ryszard Terlecki, said that the government does not attach much importance to a two-day visit by the Venice Commision to Poland. A report on a recently-passed law on Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal is to be issued by the watchdog a month after the visit.