The Polish government is still unwilling to suspend the disciplinary body that the European Court of Justice has declared unlawful, but it has a vague prospect of abolishing it as part of a further judicial reform.

She communicated this to the EU Commission in a letter with which she responded to an ultimatum.

The commission had given Warsaw until Monday to explain how the government would fully implement a judgment and an interim order from the ECJ on Polish disciplinary law.

A spokesman confirmed receipt of the letter on Tuesday.

"We'll analyze the answer before we decide what to do next," he said.

All options remained on the table.

This includes an application for financial sanctions to the ECJ.

Thomas Gutschker

Political correspondent for the European Union, NATO and the Benelux countries based in Brussels.

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The Office of the Polish Prime Minister stated in the reply that the President of the Supreme Court had instructed the Disciplinary Body not to refer any new cases.

However, the government could not suspend the Chamber and the effects of its judgments "without violating the principle of the independence of the judiciary".

As a result, the Chamber at the Supreme Court can continue proceedings that have already been initiated;

Decisions made remain legally effective.

A vague suggestion of further reform

This merely restored the legal status that had been in force in Poland from an interim order by the ECJ in April 2020 until July of this year, when the Polish Constitutional Court declared the jurisdiction of the European Supreme Court to be ineffective.

The EU Commission, on the other hand, had always insisted on a full suspension of the chamber, and the ECJ expressly ordered this in further proceedings. The government objected to this, as it has now announced. Apparently in order to avert further steps by the Commission that could lead to fines, the government referred to "plans to abolish the disciplinary chamber in its current form in the context of the next phase of judicial reform, which is to begin in the coming months", but without giving details to name. At the same time, she reiterated her claim that "the inefficiency of the system of criminal and disciplinary responsibility of judges has been a problem in the Polish judiciary for many years and is a reason for the low level of trust in the Polish social system".