WARSAW – Polish parliament voted through on Friday a bill that would roll back some of the country’s controversial judicial reforms to unlock EU cash – frozen in Brussels over concerns that the country is out of step with the bloc’s democratic rules is out of step.
But the divisive political battle over the measure is not over.
The law would transfer judicial disciplinary cases from the Supreme Court’s Disciplinary Chamber, which is seen as under government influence, to the Supreme Administrative Court, another top court that is considered more independent.
The draft law would also end sanctions against judges who raise questions about the status of fellow judges – many new judges have questionable legal status, thanks to government reforms to how they are appointed.
The measure was approved by 203 MPs, most from the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party. 52 votes were cast in protest and 189 MPs abstained – a sign of the opposition’s reluctance to support a measure they feel still violates the Polish constitution. It is also splitting the ruling coalition, with PiS’s junior partner, the eurosceptic United Poland party, rejecting the bill saying it is giving in to blackmail from Brussels.
The government is desperate to see the measure passed, as it is key to receiving €36 billion in grants and loans from the EU’s pandemic relief program – money boosting PiS’s chances of winning a third term in office in this fall’s parliamentary election. wants to promote. The opposition may not openly reject the bill, but is wary of injecting cash to its rivals.
The action now moves to the Senate, the upper chamber, where the opposition has a slim majority.
Borys Budka, a prominent member of the largest opposition party, Civic Platform, promised that the bill would be “improved” in the Senate. All the proposed amendments of the opposition were rejected in the lower house of the parliament.
The government warned that any amendments could pose problems in gaining approval from the European Commission, which insists that the Polish justice system be politically independent before relief funds can be released.
The bill “was actually made within the framework of an agreement with the European Commission, so that what we write is not insufficient in terms of unblocking the funds,” government spokesman Piotr Müller said before the vote.
If the Senate changes the bill, it would go back to the lower house, where it would have to be passed by an absolute majority of the chamber’s 460 representatives, something that would be a problem for the ruling coalition as it has only 228 MPs, of whom 19 Related with for United Poland.
If and when the bill makes it through the legislature, it still has to be signed into law by President Andrzej Duda, who is a PiS ally but who has expressed reservations about the measure, worrying that it would be difficult to appoint judges. curtails their privileges.