The top European Union court ruled on Wednesday that Poland violated a key democratic tenet of judicial independence in forcing the transfer of a judge critical of the government, as well as denying him the right to appeal to an independent court. Poland's Prime Minister said later on Wednesday that the ruling could potentially lead to a "very deep chaos".
The ruling by the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the EU is the latest blow to the sweeping overhaul of courts carried out by Poland's populist governing Law and Justice (PiS) party. PiS says the changes are needed to improve the efficiency of the justice system and rid it of lingering communist influence in the largest eastern EU member states. But other EU countries are joined by the United States, international rights watchdogs and human rights advocates in denouncing the changes as a power grab meant to silence critical voices, subdue courts and judges to more government control and undermine democratic checks and balances in Poland. Wednesday's ruling concerned Waldemar Żurek, a judge who was transferred to another job without his consent in 2018. He challenged the decision and sought the removal of the judge who dismissed his appeal. Żurek said the judge had been nominated as part of a judicial overhaul that violated the democratic separation of powers and failed to ensure judges' independence or impartiality. The judge deciding on Żurek's appeal dismissed it alone and without reviewing the case file, the EU court said. "The order by which a court, ruling at last instance and sitting as a single judge, dismissed the action of a judge transferred against his will, must be declared null and void if the appointment of that single judge took place in clear breach of fundamental rules," it said in a statement on its ruling.
Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki commented on the ruling at a press conference later on Wednesday. "If the European Court of Justice issues a verdict, which puts hundreds of thousands of rulings passed by judges appointed in recent years into question, then we should think about what is the purpose of such a ruling," he said.
In his view, the ruling would "hypothetically lead to a very deep chaos". "That's because in hundreds of thousands of cases, Polish citizens would be uncertain as to the application of the law. Poland is a constitutional state of law. Striking at the heart of the social and legal order, is an attempt to destabilise this system. Of course, we cannot consent to it.," PM Morawiecki said.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters