Poland threatens judicial independence

Sanction after sanction, the far-right Polish government refuses to back down and the European executive will not relent in its efforts to dissuade Poland from its anti-democratic drift. Already suffering the sanctions imposed by the European Union for violation of the rule of law, Brussels is now taking Poland to the European Court (CJEU) for “violations of the principle of judicial independence.” The EU has asked the European magistrates of the Luxembourg-based court to apply “precautionary measures” in a preventive manner before resolving the case. Specifically, the European executive believes that the new Polish law on the Supreme Court, which came into force last April, is contrary to “European law” with regard to judicial independence.

In effect, by dropping the retirement age of the judges, the Polish government is now able to replace incumbent judges with a conservative judiciary more in keeping with the Polish executive’s extremely conservative political stance.

The response from Warsaw so far has not convinced the EU that Poland plans to fall into line and accept the precepts that are acceptable to Europe’s policies of separation of powers and judicial independence. The EU has demanded that the court invoke precautionary measures.