Lower house seeks to 'heal' Constitutional Tribunal
The Sejm, lower house of Poland's parliament, will appeal to Constitutional Tribunal (TK) judges to resign and thus to join a process of democratic changes designed to remove the effects of the constitutional crisis of 2015-2023 that negatively affected the work of the top court.
A draft resolution to this effect, authored by the Ministry of Justice, was presented by Justice Minister Adam Bodnar and representatives of Poland's ruling coalition during a press conference in Warsaw on Monday.
The Constitutional Tribunal was politicised by the former ruling party, the socially-conservative Law and Justice (PiS), during its eight-year rule in 2015-2023, according to Poland's pro-EU parties, judicial circles, NGOs and the European Commission.
"The aim of the draft resolution is to solve accumulated legal problems regarding the composition of the top court in an objective and non-political way," reads the justification of the draft.
According to the authors of the draft, the violation of the constitution and the law in the TK functioning has made it impossible for the institution to control the constitutionality of laws, including the protection of human and civil rights.
"In the opinion of the Sejm, the state of inability of the currently functioning institution to perform TK duties..., requires the re-establishment of the constitutional court, in accordance with the constitution, and with the participation of all political groupings which respect the constitutional order," reads the draft.
"The Sejm believes that a public authority institution may be accused of having violated the principle of legalism if it incorporates into its public functioning TK rulings issued in violation of the law," the draft said.
PiS carried out its reforms soon after it won the parliamentary election of 2015, triggering nationwide protests of judicial circles and the then opposition. The changes spurred the European Commission to launch rule-of-law infringement procedures against Poland, which cost the country billions of euros in withheld EU funding.
In December 2015, the Sejm, the lower house of parliament, committed 'the original sin' by appointing three TK 'judge-doubles' despite the fact that a month before, parliament had appointed other judges to the same posts.
But the president then went on to swear in the judges elected in December.
In connection with these appointments, the Sejm is planned to state in the resolution that, by the end of 2022, TK issued 85 rulings with the participation of "unauthorised persons," and that Julia Przylebska, who is currently holding the post of the TK president, is also "an unauthorised person."
"The Sejm appeals to TK judges to resign and thus to join a process of democratic changes," the resolution concluded.
The Sejm will hear the first reading of the resolution on Wednesday. (PAP)
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