RESOLUTION

of the Assembly of Judges of the Region of the Regional Court in Bydgoszcz

of 29 June 2018

regarding the threats to the justice administration

The Assembly of Judges of the Region of the Regional Court in Bydgoszcz supports the resolutions passed by associations of judges throughout Poland and, in identifying with them:

• expresses its decided objection to the actions taken by the National Council of the Judiciary, which was appointed in breach of Article 187 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, as well as the attitudes of the judges who are its members, acknowledging them as being unworthy of a judge’s office;

• expresses its decided objection to the actions taken by the National Council of the Judiciary intended to take disciplinary and repressive action for alleged political involvement against judges who speak publicly in defence of the sovereignty of the courts and judicial independence, which constitutes a restriction on every citizen’s, including every judge’s constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech, provided that this is not in conflict with the principles of professional ethics;

• joins the appeals requesting the European Commission to promptly refer the Act on the Supreme Court to the Court of Justice of the European Union in the procedure provided for in Article 258 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, with a request to suspend the application of this Act pending the resolution of the matter by the Court of Justice and stopping the executive from removing judges from the Supreme Court in conflict with the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, which will inevitably lead to a catastrophic collapse in the judicial activity of the Supreme Court, as well as the ordinary courts;

• assesses the amendment of Article 30 of the Act on the System of Common Courts, specifying a new membership of the board of the regional court, as being introduced in gross breach of the standards of reliable legislation, because of the omission of any transitional provisions specifying the status of the boards constituted under the regulations that have applied to date;

• expresses its decided objection to the appointment of judges to the disciplinary courts at the courts of appeal without their consent, in breach of the principle expressed in Article 180, para. 2 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland;

• joins the appeals addressed to all judges in Poland not to succumb to the government’s pressures, attempts to intimidate and put pressure on them, as well as to the judicial associations to assume unambiguous and decided attitudes objecting to all actions intended to subordinate the courts and judges to the political authority;

• obligates the president of the Regional Court in Bydgoszcz to post this resolution on the Court’s website.