Venice Commission: Polish judiciary reform poses serious risk

The Venice Commission, a panel of constitutional law experts of the human rights body Council of Europe, said that Poland’s court overhaul poses serious risks to all parts of the country’s judiciary. The Commission also said that giving the Polish parliament the right to select members of the National Judiciary Council (KRS), in conjunction with the proposed immediate replacement of the currently sitting members, “will lead to a far-reaching politicization of this body.” “The cumulative effect of proposed reforms to two laws and recently adopted amendments to a third law puts at serious risk the independence of all parts of the Polish judiciary,” the Commission said. The opinion concerns two drafts recently submitted by the Polish President to the Sejm (Polish Parliament), which amend the Act on the National Council of the Judiciary and the Act on the Supreme Court, as well as recently already adopted amendments to the Act on Ordinary Courts.