WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland should immediately suspend the powers of a Supreme Court chamber created to discipline judges since it is not independent and thereby in breach of EU law, the European Union’s top court ruled on Wednesday.
The decision comes as a blow to Poland and its ruling euroskeptic Law and Justice party (PiS), which has been at odds with the EU’s executive arm, over its judiciary reforms since it took power in 2015.
Critics say the disciplinary chamber is not sufficiently independent as its members were selected by a body chosen mostly by the parliament, in which Poland’s ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party has a majority.
The Commission – the guardian of EU law, which takes precedence over national law – asked the European Court of Justice in January to suspend the chamber.
“Member State should ensure that the disciplinary regime applicable to judges of the national courts…complies with the principle of the independence of the judiciary,” the European Court of Justice said in a statement justifying the decision.
“As a result, the Court grants the Commission’s application for interim measures,” it also said.
A Polish government spokesman was not immediately available to comment. Poland has previously pushed back on accusations that the chamber is not sufficiently independent.
“The ECJ does not have the competence to judge or to suspend constitutional national bodies of member states. Today’s ruling is a usurping act that infringes on sovereignty,” deputy justice minister Sebastian Kaleta said in a tweet reacting to the ECJ’s decision.
Warsaw has already lost several cases in the EU’s top court brought by the Commission. The EU now wants to make Poland’s access to tens of billions of euros in the bloc’s next long-term budget conditional on observing the rule of law.
The disciplinary chamber was created in 2017, along with a disciplinary ombudsman who investigates and directs cases against judges to the chamber, after new legislation was introduced by the PiS-led parliament.
Designed to be a new disciplinary regime for judges, the panel has the power to cut their salaries and suspend them from their work. Critics say it can be used to muzzle judges critical of the ruling party’s reforms.
A Polish judge, Pawel Juszczyszyn, was suspended earlier this year by the chamber in part for questioning the validity of judges in the National Judiciary Council, a body that critics say is not independent as it was appointed by parliament.
“The chamber functions in line with Polish law…EU treaties do not regulate at all the judiciary systems of particular member states,” a government spokesman said in January.
PiS says its legislation is aimed at preventing chaos in the Polish judiciary.
(Reporting by Joanna Plucinska, Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk and Agnieszka Barteczko, Writing by Joanna Plucinska; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
