Sejm rejects majority of crucial amendments to Supreme Court bill

The main idea behind the amendment of the law on the Supreme Court is dismantling of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court and replacing it with a Chamber of Professional Responsibility. The European Commission is expecting Poland to implement changes to said bill, saying it's necessary for the country to receive money from the recovery fund.

The proposed amendment to the bill was put forward by president Andrzej Duda. First the Sejm approved the bill and then the Senate added its changes. On Wednesday, a Sejm committee recommended rejecting most of the Senate's changes.

In the final vote on Thursday, the Sejm rejected 23 out of 29 changes proposed by the Senate, including all crucial ones from a substantive point of view. Some of them assumed nullification of all verdicts passed by the Disciplinary Chamber.

One amendment assumed that with the adoption of the bill all Disciplinary Chamber judges would cease to be Supreme Court justices.

The EU's chief executive sought to reassure angry European lawmakers on Tuesday that Poland would receive no COVID economic recovery funds before it has acted to reinstate independent courts, after having formally unlocked the money last week.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution in a vote on Thursday (June 9) expressing concern with the fact that the EU Commission had approved Poland's National Recovery Plan on June 1.

Among the main reasons for said concern, the MEPs mentioned "existing and continued breaches of the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary" in Poland.