EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The independence of the judiciary in Poland has been systematically dismantled over the last six years. Previously independent bodies, such as the Constitutional Tribunal and the National Council of the Judiciary have been brought under firm political control. The politicization of the NCJ has led to a situation where the independence of this body, as well as the independence of judges appointed and promoted with its involvement (referred to as neo-judges), has been questioned in a number of judgments by the ECtHR, the CJEU, and the Polish Supreme Court.  At the same time, the ruling camp has set up several central bodies, which specialize in repressing judges, such as the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court, central disciplinary commissioners and the Internal Affairs Department of the State Prosecution Service, all of which conduct politically motivated proceedings against judges who try to defend the rule of law.

Many Polish judges have taken up the fight to preserve the independence of the judiciary by criticizing the pseudo-reform in the media, submitting requests for preliminary rulings to the CJEU and, more recently, overturning judgments issued with the participation of neo-judges. Much of the persecution is directed against those judges who take action to enforce CJEU rulings. The first wave of persecution on this basis followed the CJEU judgment of 19 November 2019 (in A.K. and Others, C-585/18, C-624/18 and C-625/18) and affected 21 judges, as discussed in the ‘Themis’ report of 31 December 2020 Such a broad wave of persecution was made possible by the introduction of the so-called Muzzle Act, which allows judges to be punished for the content of their rulings and for the implementation of CJEU judgments.

Another wave of persecution followed the CJEU rulings of 14 and 15 July 2021 (C-204/21 R and C-791/19), which the Polish authorities have so far failed to implement, and these are the issues addressed in this report. The repressions consisted, inter alia, of temporary suspension of eight judgesthrough administrative decisions of the Minister of Justice and the Presidents of the Courts, and the indefinite suspension of four judges by the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court, which is illegal under European law. The report also describes various actions of politically subordinated central state bodies, such as the Constitutional Tribunal, the neo-NCJ and the prosecution service in the face of CJEU rulings that are inconvenient for the Polish authorities. The various activities of the Polish authorities described in the report lead the Author to the sad conclusion that it is difficult to imagine what more the Polish authorities could do to prevent the application of European law in the field of justice in Poland.

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Challenging the principles of primacy and direct applicability_extended_wer