The European Court of Justice ruled on Monday that Poland must “immediately” suspend judicial reforms that imposed earlier retirement ages on justices of its Supreme Court.
The April law backed by Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party lowered the judges’ retirement age from 70 to 65, allowing them to stay on past that age only if they gained the permission of President Andrzej Duda. The measure would have forced about 40 percent of the court’s judges, including Chief Justice Małgorzata Gersdorf, into early retirement.
The government argued the measure was needed to rid the court of communist-era holdovers, but the European Commission challenged the law as a danger to the EU’s legal order. Critics said the law violated the Polish constitution and was an attempt to purge the court and bring it under tighter political control.
In October, the ECJ issued a provisional ruling that the application of the law be frozen, pending a full hearing before the court, and the judges forced out were allowed to return to work. Monday’s ruling confirmed that interim measure. The final judgment will come at a later date.
In Monday’s ruling, the EU’s top court found that the Commission’s arguments about Poland’s actions were not unwarranted, and that otherwise “the independence of that court may not be ensured” until the ECJ issues its verdict on the Commission’s challenge.
It added that the EU’s legal system “could be seriously and irreparably affected” if the law is allowed to continue in force.
Last month, PiS reversed some of the changes to the Supreme Court law. The ruling party has also taken a much more pro-EU public stance, a recognition of the broad popularity of being a member country.