President of the European Council Donald Tusk asked President Andrzej Duda for a meeting, confirmed the President's Chief of Staff Krzysztof Szczerski. According to the President, "there is no room for an intervention by the head of the European Council".
Earlier, the 300polityka website reported that Tusk, concerned by the debates on the Polish situation currently under way in EU bodies and key capitals, offered to meet the President, but the offer was rejected.
"It is true that we have received a request for a meeting. The President instructed me to inform Tusk that, in his view, there was no room for an intervention by the head of the European Council, no matter who occupied the position. All the more so, as the European Council does not occupy itself with the issue of the reform of the judiciary," the President's Chief of Staff said.
"There is no room, since, firstly, the normal legislative process is under way in the parliament," he added.
"Secondly, the amendments proposed by the President, which are to be incorporated in the legislation, take nominations to the National Council of the Judiciary out of the sphere of party politics – which is the core of the reform – while the changes affecting the Supreme Court conform to Article 180, paragraph 5 of the Constitution, and so the fear is unfounded and based on faulty analysis of the situation, which ignores the changes introduced on the President's initiative," pointed out Szczerski.
"The President is surprised that, under these circumstances, European institutions have intensified their activity, as everything is happening in compliance with the legal order."
"The President believes that the President of the European Council should rather be active in Brussels, in order to explain, without bias, the nature of these changes and the reasons for the political dispute, and should use his influence with EU institutions, rather than in Warsaw," said Szczerski.
Brussels is critical of changes in the Polish judiciary
On Wednesday, the European Commission criticized changes in the justice system in Poland, pointing out that if all the relevant laws were to be enacted, the independence of courts would be abolished in Poland. The Commission will prepare a procedure to deal with a breach of EU law by our country; to procedure will be set in motion next week.
Frans Timmermans, deputy head of the EC, said on Wednesday that the proposed law on the National Council of the Judiciary, common courts and the Supreme Court significantly "exacerbate systemic threats to the rule of law" in Poland. He recalled that already in 2016 the EC stated in its recommendations that there were systemic threats to the rule of law in Poland.
Timmermans said during a press conference held after a meeting of the College of Commissioners, devoted to the situation in Poland, that he had invited Polish ministers to Brussels.
Amendments to legislative acts
Last week work was completed on amendments to the act on the National Council of the Judiciary and the act on common courts. The proposed amendments were sent to the President. Last Wednesday, the Law and Order party (PiS) submitted the bill on the Supreme Court to the Sejm. This provoked protests by the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary opposition.
If the amendments to the act on the National Council of the Judiciary, drafted by the government, are adopted, 15 members of the Council, who are judges, will be retired. According to the amendments, their successors would be chosen by the Sejm (currently they are elected by the judicial community).
The amendments to the act on the Supreme Court, drafted by PiS, the first reading of which took place in the Sejm on Tuesday, include a stipulation, according to which the terms of current Supreme Court judges would expire, except for those designated by the Minister of Justice.
The first and second reading of the draft law on the Supreme Court was held in the Sejm on Tuesday, in a turbulent atmosphere. Also on Tuesday, President Duda submitted to the Sejm a draft amendment to the Act on the National Council of the Judiciary, in which he proposed that the members of the Council be elected by a 3/5 majority of Sejm deputies. The President also stated that he would not sign the Act on the Supreme Court, unless his draft amendment to the Act on the National Council of the Judiciary was passed earlier.
On Tuesday evening, the President met with the Speakers of the Sejm and the Senate. Stanisław Piotrowicz (PiS), chairman of the Justice Committee of the Sejm, announced on Wednesday that the President's suggestions had been incorporated in the draft law on the Supreme Court as amendments. On Wednesday evening, the Justice Committee of the Sejm began its work on the draft act on the Supreme Court. Amendments submitted by PiS were adopted and those submitted by the opposition were rejected.
Źródło: tvn24.pl/tłumaczenie Intertext.com.pl