The ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) regarding the law on Polish Supreme Court must be implemented, the deputy head of the European Commission Frans Timmermans said on Monday. He added that he noted the all of the Supreme Court's judges already returned to work.
"The Commission has no doubt that the court's ruling is a court's ruling, and as such must be implemented," Timmermans told journalists in Brussels. "Court's decision must be and may be implemented, as chief justice Gersdorf suggested, by bringing all retired judges back to court," he added.
According to comments made by members of PiS government, in order to implement ECJ's temporary measures, an amendment to the Supreme Court law is required. The EU diplomats reported that during the General Affairs Council, Timmermans told the ministers that such approach by Polish authorities concerned him.
There's an ongoing dispute in Warsaw, between the Supreme Court and the government, regarding the ECJ's order suspending execution of provisions from the Supreme Court law.
Deputy Justice Minister Michał Wójcik said in October that Małgorzata Gersdorf isn't chief justice anymore and the judges who returned to court are still retired.
Gersdorf, however, informed the EC last week that on 19 October, all judges that fell under the scope of temporary measures, were called to return to their duties at the Supreme Court. By the end of October, 22 judges showed up in the court. Some of them have been already assigned cases to examine.
The information on recent developments in Poland's case at the General Affairs Council lasted 15 minutes. Apart from the deputy head Timmermans, only Poland's representative took the floor.
Poland's EU Minister Konrad Szymański did not take part in the meeting. He was represented by the Permanent Representative of Poland to he EU Andrzej Sadoś.
According to Polish Press Agency's source, Szymański is believed to have said the government was working on a response to ECJ and the Commission, and that it wanted a constructive solution that would end the case.
Before the meeting, German EU Minister Michael Roth said that he was happy to hear Polish government reassuring that it would treat the ECJ ruling seriously. "Now, we expect the ECJ's decisions to be respected and implemented," he said.
EU ministers will discuss the situation in Poland at the next session in December, diplomatic sources say that such information comes from the Austrian EU Presidency.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 International, PAP