In Poland, all ten center-left and liberal opposition parties, along with a number of civil society groups, have reached an agreement to reverse the controversial appointments of judges. They also want to end the “devastating conflict” with the European Union and secure the payment of EU subsidies.
The European Court of Justice recently sentenced Poland to a fine of one million euros a day for failing to comply with a previous ruling suspending its disciplinary chamber for judges. In addition, as a sanction, Brussels is now also allowed to withhold Polish agricultural and rehabilitation subsidies.
Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki recently appointed a less controversial agriculture minister. but continues to oppose tightened EU rules for animal welfare (eg cage ban, bio-safety) and agricultural regulations. As a result, it is expected that the distribution of EU agricultural funds in the new CAP will also lead to problems between Brussels and Watrschau.
The signatories have unveiled a ten-point plan to restore the independence of the Polish judiciary, which they call a “sine qua non precondition for democracy, independent election surveillance and the protection of individual rights”.
As a priority, the agreement calls for the reinstatement of judges who criticized the PiS government's judicial policies and were suspended. It also calls for the abolition of the government-established Supreme Court Disciplinary Chamber, which has been deemed illegal by a number of international and domestic bodies (including the Supreme Court itself).
The document was signed by ten political parties, including the centrist Civic Platform (PO), the liberal Modern (Nowoczesna), the agrarian Polish People's Party (PSL), the New Left (Nowa Lewica), Left Together (Lewica Razem), and the centrist Poland 2050 (Poland 2050).
Those six larger parties are joined by four smaller factions, along with a number of social and legal organizations. According to a recent poll, the ten parties together have more than 40% of seats in parliament and almost 50% of public support.
The signatories believe that all new judges, recently appointed by the conservative-nationalist PiS majority of parliament, should be replaced by judges appointed by judges, as was the case before.