The first chamber of parliament (Sejm) voted on Wednesday to continue working on the law. However, further hurdles are to be expected. Actually, the draft law would have been on the agenda of Parliament in December. But Duda criticized the fact that he hadn’t been able to see it beforehand – and wanted to have it checked first to see whether the current draft was in line with the Polish constitution. The item was then removed from the agenda. Now he has landed in the Sejm a few weeks late – despite approval, there is a lot of criticism.
The focus is on the independence of the judiciary – not only the EU saw this as a threat. For example, the disciplinary chamber, which decided on disciplinary proceedings against judges, was abolished – but the EU did not accept the replacement either. These institutions were seen within the government’s sphere of influence. Instead, the Supreme Administrative Court should take care of it in the future. It should also no longer be possible to sanction judges who, for example, ask the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to interpret EU law.
The ECJ imposed a fine of one million euros per day on Warsaw because of the abuses it criticized – meanwhile this has added up to over 400 million euros (which Poland has not yet paid). In addition, the EU Commission withheld 35.4 billion euros in aid from the CoV recovery fund. In the summer there was a rapprochement between the EU and Poland, in principle Brussels was ready to pay out the money to Poland. However, only if certain milestones are actually implemented.
Parliamentary elections also play into the debate
So now you want to pave the way for access to these 35 billion. With the enormous increase in inflation and also in view of the upcoming parliamentary elections in autumn, this is a major concern for Prime Minister Morawiecki from the PiS. So far, however, the biggest hurdle to implementation has been the junior partner in the coalition. The Eurosceptic, ultra-conservative party United Poland, with Zbigniew Ziobro, is the Minister of Justice of all people – and is a major opponent of the plans negotiated with the EU. The party also voted against the plans on Wednesday.
In addition to the President and the coalition partner, there is also criticism from numerous lawyers. Some doubt that the concerns of the EU have been allayed, others do not see the law in accordance with the Polish constitution – the Association of Administrative Judges and the Bar Council also reject the draft. And: Some voices see the actual problems with Poland’s judiciary as not being solved.
Opposition didn’t get in the way
To the very end, the opposition was actually negative – on Wednesday, however, it was said that they would not put themselves across. In the end, they voted together with the PiS. Above all, the opposition leader Donald Tusk from the liberal-conservative Civic Platform (PO), who has returned to Polish politics and is now the leader, sharply criticized the government in advance.
If the coalition settled their dispute today, “tomorrow the opposition would allow you to pass this imperfect law,” Tusk said at a press conference. Should the law be sufficient for the EU aid money to come, the opposition will “not prevent it. That’s the money of the Poles,” said Tusk. At the same time, their own amendments were tabled in Parliament on Thursday.
According to a recent survey, the release of the EU billions is also a crucial issue for the forthcoming election campaign, reports the news portal Gazeta. Although Morawiecki’s PiS is still ahead, Tusk’s party was able to catch up recently. Theoretically, this could result in a coalition of opposition parties, which, however, would be ideologically diverse and probably correspondingly shaky, as “Politico” also writes.
Many questions still open
After the first reading in the Sjem on Wednesday, the second reading is to take place on Thursday. Irrespective of the dispute within the coalition, it is still necessary to convince the President. Its vote is just as open as the question of how Brussels ultimately sees the law. Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders described the draft a week ago as a “promising step” in the direction of the retained funds from the recovery fund.
