– The Council of Ministers confirmed the current position that judgments of the Constitutional Court as an institution that do not meet its standards will no longer be published – Minister of Justice Adam Bodnar spoke on Thursday about Wednesday's government resolution. .
“The Council of Ministers remains hopeful that we will succeed and that this will lead to the restoration of an independent constitutional court,” Bodnar said.
Constitutional Court. Government view: Announcement of decision could perpetuate crisis
On Wednesday, the government “considered the need to eliminate the effects of the constitutional crisis on the Constitutional Court, the National Judicial Council and the Supreme Court” and adopted a resolution on “coping with the negative effects of the constitutional crisis”. in the field of justice.”
As stated in the resolution, “The Council of Ministers expresses the position that publishing the Constitutional Court's decisions in the Official Gazette could lead to the perpetuation of the crisis of the rule of law.” “The Council of Ministers therefore considers it impermissible to publish documents issued by unauthorized institutions,” the resolution stressed.
Adam Bodnar: The Venice Commission's opinion is a “guideline for direction”
Mr. Adam Bodnar also announced that regarding the opinion of the Venice Commission on the Draft Regulations for the Constitutional Court, this opinion will be treated as a guideline for a certain direction of legislation. – But we are bound by the resolution of the Parliament of the Republic of Poland of March 6 of this year. And this was the main starting point for Wednesday's Council of Ministers resolution, Bodnar commented on Thursday.
Recently, the Venice Commission, an advisory body to the Council of Europe, issued an opinion stating that ending the terms of all current judges of Poland's Constitutional Court is contrary to European standards. According to the commission, the measures taken by the Polish authorities must be consistent with the principle of non-removal of duly appointed judges.
– In this way, we once again stood on the side of democracy, the rule of law, European values and civil rights. But above all, we still defend the Constitution of the Republic of Poland as the basis of our state. Bodnar commented on the government's resolution on the X Platform on Wednesday evening:
Bodnar stressed that there was no consent for the functioning of the state institutions, which were appointed and staffed “in violation of the fundamental political principles of the Third Republic of Poland.” He added that the Constitution and the European Court of Justice's judgments are “guarantees of our freedoms and guidelines to be followed on the road to restoring the rule of law in our country.”
Constitutional Court 'unable to carry out its mission'
The current state of the judiciary, which has been described as a “crisis of the rule of law,” requires systemic solutions and corrective measures, the government resolution said. It was pointed out that the statutes of the National Judicial Council and the Supreme Court, created after 2017 and published in the Official Gazette, should be appropriately annotated.
The resolution cited a number of judgments of the EU Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights for the period 2021-2024 regarding the Polish judicial system. At the same time, I was reminded of Seim's resolution from December last year. March 2024 in relation to both the current National Judicial Council and the Constitutional Court.
“Changes to the judicial system that began in 2015 were aimed at weakening the independence of the judiciary. The action resulted in the reorganization of the Council of State.The reform of the judicial system and the creation of a new Supreme Court exposed the judiciary to unauthorized interference by the executive and legislative authorities, and the independence of the judiciary guaranteed by the constitution. “My sexuality has weakened,” he said. Solved.
Regarding the Constitutional Court, the government concluded that the Court “in its current structure is unable to carry out the tasks stipulated in Articles 188 and 189 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland.” “The Council of Ministers considers it justified to consistently take corrective measures aimed at restoring the functioning of the constitutional judiciary in accordance with constitutional standards,” we wrote in the resolution.
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