Forget worries about exacerbating an East-West rift or splitting the bloc just when it needs unity to deal with Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Theresa May. If Polish strongman Jarosław Kaczyński is allowed to get away with replacing an independent judiciary with judges hand-picked for political loyalty, the EU’s claims to be a democratic watchdog and not just a glorified free-trade area will look hollow. [...]
“The Polish case is a test whether it is possible to create a Soviet-style justice system, where the control of courts, prosecutors and judges lies with the executive and a single party, in an EU member state,” Piotr Buras of the Stefan Batory Foundation, a Polish civil society organization, and Gerald Knaus of the European Stability Initiative think tank wrIte in a joint paper. “It remains to be seen whether this can be corrected before it fatally undermines the idea of the EU as a community based on law and common values,” they add. [...]
Barring a last-minute intervention by EU ministers or the European Court of Justice, the government will go ahead with the enforced early retirement of up to 40 percent of the Supreme Court on July 3 under a law that entered into force in April. Among those whose necks are on the block is Małgorzata Gersdorf, the first president of the Supreme Court, whose eviction in the middle of a six-year term would violate the Polish constitution. Some 70 out of 120 Supreme Court justices would then be new appointees. [...]
Because of its own history, it’s hard for Germany to read the riot act to the Poles over the rule of law. It would gift Kaczyński a chance to turn a principled dispute over judicial independence into a political battle and accuse Berlin of “bullying.” Chancellor Angela Merkel has wisely let the Commission take the lead so far, lending discreet support to Vice President Frans Timmermans, the Dutch social democrat who holds the toxic Polish file in Brussels. He needs her public support now.
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