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Supreme Court head wants gov’t to backtrack on disciplinary regime

Małgorzata Manowska, the head of the Polish Supreme Court has requested the President, Prime Minister and the Speakers of both houses of the parliament to amend the country’s new disciplinary system for judges in order to end the current conflict with the EU.

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Judge Manowska has asked President Andrzej Duda to consider putting forward a relevant bill that would allow for “efficient and doubt-free” operation of the disciplinary regime in Poland.



On July 15, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court, which can run disciplinary proceedings against judges, should be suspended owing to a lack of independence from the executive power. Poland has been given until August 16 to implement the rulings or face financial sanctions.



In an interview with the Polish Press Agency (PAP), the President said that he concurs with the opinion of the head of SN.



“Everything points out that legislative changes for the disciplinary responsibility system,” Andrzej Duda said. “First of all… it should be efficient and society should feel that this responsibility exists,” he added.



“The judicial environment should feel that there is such a responsibility, but it ought to be transparent, reliable and fair,” the President told PAP.

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In her letters to Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and the speakers of the lower and upper houses of parliament, Elżbieta Witek and Tomasz Grodzki, judge Manowska made an appeal to prepare legislation with identical effect.



The head of SN warned that Poland was facing huge financial fines for not complying with the CJEU verdict. She also said the Court’s rulings have “in fact paralysed the system of judicial disciplinary responsibility, a situation which has lasted for a year and has drastically deteriorated in recent weeks.”



In October 2019, the European Commission (EC) decided to take Poland to the CJEU. The EC argued that the disciplinary panel at the Supreme Court, set up in 2017 by the ruling coalition to take disciplinary measures against judges who break the law or code of conduct, violated judicial independence in that it could have a “chilling effect” on judges, and thus ran against EU law.



The Disciplinary Chamber can strip judges of immunity, suspend their work and impose penalties on them, but critics say ruling party politicians have had an overwhelming influence on who should sit on the panel.

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