Around 3,600 Polish judges - more than a third of the country's judiciary - petitioned the government and the presiding judge of the Supreme Court to comply with the latest rulings of the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

This applies in particular to the “immediate cessation of the activities of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court” called for by the judges.

Gerhard Gnauck

Political correspondent for Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania based in Warsaw.

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In mid-July, the ECJ ruled that this chamber at the Supreme Court, created in 2018, which can discipline all judges in the country with penalties, was neither independent nor impartial. All members of the disciplinary body had been appointed after the responsible State Judicial Council KRS had been placed under the control of parliament. According to the new rules, the final appointment of the judges is made by the President.

The EU Commission gave Poland until August 16 to obey the judgment of the ECJ; otherwise Warsaw faces heavy fines. Most recently, Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki had sent contradicting signals in the conflict and distanced himself from the controversial judicial reforms of his Justice Minister - part of which are the changes at the Supreme Court. In parallel to the ECJ proceedings, Morawiecki had applied in the spring to the constitutional court in Warsaw, which was occupied by judges close to the government, to determine that Polish law took precedence over EU law. The verdict is expected on August 3rd.

The collection of signatures documented by the oko.press portal was started last week by judges in Olsztyn and has now spread across the entire country. The signatories continue to write: "The refusal to comply with the judgments (of the ECJ) is not only a flagrant violation of Community law, which is binding on us, but also violates the constitutional order of our country." They refer to Article 91, which specifies when international treaties take precedence over national law. In the meantime, 47 judges of the Supreme Court, around half of the judiciary there, and 321 public prosecutors have also signed the petition.