In Poland, all ten center-left and liberal opposition parties, together with several societal groups, have reached an agreement to overturn the controversial appointments of judges. They also aim to end the “devastating conflict” with the European Union and secure the disbursement of EU subsidies.
The European Court of Justice recently condemned Poland to a fine of one million euros per day for failing to comply with a previous ruling to suspend its disciplinary chamber for judges. Moreover, as a sanction, Brussels may now also withhold Polish agricultural and recovery subsidies.
Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki has recently appointed a less controversial Minister of Agriculture, but continues to resist tightened EU rules on animal welfare (including cage bans and biosecurity) and agricultural regulations. As a result, the distribution of EU agricultural funds under the new CAP is also expected to cause problems between Brussels and Warsaw.
The signatories have unveiled a ten-point plan to restore the independence of the Polish judiciary, which they call a “sine qua non condition for democracy, independent election oversight, and the protection of individual rights.”
As a priority, the agreement calls for the reinstatement of judges who were critical of the judiciary policies of the PiS government and were suspended. It also advocates for the abolishment of the disciplinary chamber of the Supreme Court, established by the government and deemed unlawful by several international and domestic bodies (including the Supreme Court itself).
The document is signed by ten political parties, including the centrist Civic Platform (PO), the liberal Modern (Nowoczesna), the agrarian Polish People’s Party (PSL), New Left (Nowa Lewica), Left Together (Lewica Razem), and the centrist Poland 2050 (Polen 2050).
These six larger parties are accompanied by four smaller factions, along with some societal and legal organizations. According to a recent poll, the ten parties together hold over 40% of the seats in parliament and nearly 50% of public support.
The signatories believe that all new judges recently appointed by the conservative-nationalist PiS majority in parliament must be replaced by judges appointed by the judiciary itself, as was previously the case.