EU executive affirms Polish lawmakers' power to appoint tribunal judges
The dispute escalated after the most senior appointee took charge of the Constitutional Tribunal on Oct. 30, prompting a confrontation with police.
The European Commission on Nov. 1 supported the Polish parliament's authority to select eight Constitutional Tribunal members, as Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government faced resistance to the appointments from President Karol Nawrocki.
Speaking to the Kyiv Independent, a Commission spokesperson said the constitution gives the Sejm, Poland's parliament, that power. The spokesperson also pointed to interim measures issued by the European Court of Human Rights directing Polish authorities not to hinder the appointed judges from taking up or carrying out their work.
Nawrocki, who comes from the Law and Justice Party (PiS), refused to hear the new judges swear their oaths. On Oct. 30, the senior-most appointee took over leadership of the tribunal. A confrontation followed between police and PiS politicians, their supporters and groups further to the right.
PiS leader Jarosław Kaczynski called for protests to continue and alleged that Tusk's administration was making Poland a police state. In an Oct. 31 social media response, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski accused the opposition of rejecting its loss of control over the tribunal and said the government would continue upholding the constitution.
The confrontation comes amid Tusk's efforts to bring Poland's legal system back into line with EU standards. Political control over the judiciary under the former PiS government prompted the EU to launch a legal procedure against Warsaw in 2017.
