Polish National Council of the Judiciary (KRS) will halt its procedures and will not hold further hearings of candidates for Supreme Court judges and thereby will comply with the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), the President of the KRS, Leszek Mazur announced on Tuesday.
In the end of September, president Andrzej Duda announced there were 11 seats vacant in the Supreme Court. In response, 25 applications were submitted. In October, the KRS has selected teams that would assess the candidates for judges.
However, on the 19 October the CJEU acceded to the European Commission's request and decided to implement a so-called temporary measure and suspended the execution of the provisions of the law on the Supreme Court, forcing judges aged 65 or older to retirement. European court demands, among other things, the retired judges be recalled back to work. Furthermore, CJEU wanted appointing new judges on hold.
In an interview for Polish Press agency (PAP), judge Mazur said that during next week's session the KRS will examine the CJEU's ruling. "Our situation, is quite comfortable as KRS is only expected to put its operations on hold. We are expected to suspend the procedure of appointing new Supreme Court judges," said the KRS president.
He stressed that the next step in the pending procedure would be adopting a resolution inviting candidates for judges so that the KRS teams can hear them. "Most likely we won't adopt this resolution. We won't invite anyone, we won't do anything and thereby we will comply with the CJEU's ruling. We were expected to suspend the procedure and so we have suspended it, namely we're doing nothing," he added.
The KRS president also announced that the council will most likely recognise CJEU's ruling but it won't be adopting any formal resolutions in that regard. "It will rather be happen on a "de facto" basis, namely there we won't take any actions and we comply, but without any formal statement, which usually encourages critical voices," argued Mr Mazur.
By the October's ruling, the CJEU has fully supported the European Commission's standpoint. As it was annouced, the CJEU, even before hearing Poland's concerns, has taken into consideration all of the EC's motions until the final ruling in this case is passed.
According to the provisions questioned by the CJEU from the law on the Supreme Court that came into force on 3 April, judges aged 65 or older were forced into retirement. If a retired judge had expressed a will to remain at the court, Polish President may had acceded to their formal written requests. Many judges have not submitted such requests.
Last week, judge Małgorzata Gersdorf called upon 23 retired Supreme Court judges to return to the court to fulfil their judicial duties.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 International, PAP
Źródło zdjęcia głównego: Shutterstock