Poland: CJEU calls on Warsaw to suspend judicial reform

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Rally against the Supreme Court Reform in front of the Presidential Palace, July 24, 2017. REUTERS / Kacper Pempel

Poland is in the sights of the EU Court of Justice (CJEU). The latter sum Warsaw to suspend "immediately" its reform of the Supreme Court. Passed this summer, this controversial law lowers the retirement age of judges from 70 to 65 years and automatically ends the mandate of more than a third of them. Brussels sees it as a threat to the separation of powers. An argument rejected by the Polish Conservative government.

With our correspondent in Warsaw, Damien Simonart

It was from Brussels that Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki reacted to the decision of the European Court. " We will certainly respond to it. Several possibilities will be analyzed, "he said hinting that he hopes for a compromise.

The Foreign Ministry stresses that the Court's decision is " provisional " and that it was " taken without hearing the position of Poland ". Warsaw is trying to convince the EU that its reform is essential to turn the page of the communist era in the country.

For Malgorzata Gersdorf , president of the Supreme Court and herself dismissed because of her age, the decision of the European Court of Justice is good news even if it " undermines the dignity of the country. "

The application of this formal notice, however, promises to be complicated. Ten days ago, without even waiting for the decision from Luxembourg, Polish President Andrzej Duda has already appointed replacements for retired judges.