Petition of the Justice Defense Committee KOS to the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union regarding the destruction of the Polish rule of law during the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Since Russia!s aggression against Ukraine, the Polish government has been positioning itself in the international arena as a defender of freedom and democracy, while simultaneously, in the domestic arena, it has been further destroying the standards of democracy and the rule of law at an accelerated pace, continuing its actions aiming towards the “Putinisation” of the Polish justice system and political system.
It is no coincidence that, during the war from the assault on Ukraine, the Polish authorities have already taken a number of measures to further destroy the rule of law. As early as on the second day after the outbreak of war, another Polish judge (Anna Głowacka) was suspended for applying European law and the judgments of the European courts. When the Polish government passed a law on aid for refugees from Ukraine, it tried to push through legislation giving the politicians from the ruling camp impunity for official offences committed during the pandemic and the war. During the hostilities, the President handed out appointments to more than 200 new, defectively nominated (at the request of the neo-NCJ) so-called neo-judges, including 4 appointments to the Supreme Court. Finally, on 10 March 2022, at the request of the Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro, the politicized and fully subordinated Constitutional Tribunal (with the participation of so-called “stand-in judges”) undermined the validity of Article 6 of the ECHR in Poland by questioning the ability of the ECtHR and Polish courts to examine the correctness of the appointment of judges and the independence of the neo-NCJ. It is worth adding that earlier, on 24 November 2021, also at the request of the Minister of Justice, the same Constitutional Tribunal (also with stand-in judges) stated that it is not itself subject to assessment as to whether it is an independent and impartial court under Article 6 of the ECHR.
We therefore ask the bodies of the European Union to use all available means to:
1) stop the election of another illegal neo-NCJ and restore the independence of the NCJ (through the election of a correct, constitutional body) by bringing the procedure for the election of its judicial part into conformity with the Polish Constitution and to enable the body created in this way to verify judicial appointments made with the involvement of the neo-NCJ;
2) remove neo-judges elected to positions with the participation of the neo-NCJ from the Supreme Court;
3) establish a new, transparent and independent system of disciplinary proceedings against judges, combined with liquidation of the Disciplinary Chamber;
4) immediately restore the right of all judges, who have been unlawfully suspended for enforcing the judgments of the CJEU and the ECtHR, to practice the profession;
5) repeal the Muzzle Act.
Petition against the destruction of the rule of law in Poland during the war in Ukraine