WARSAW — The Polish parliament on Friday voted through a bill that would roll back some of the country’s controversial judicial reforms in a bid to unlock EU cash — frozen over worries in Brussels that the country is out of step with the bloc’s democratic rules.
But the divisive political fight over the measure isn’t over.
The legislation would shift judicial disciplinary matters from the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court, seen as being under the government’s influence, to the Supreme Administrative Court, another top court that is viewed as being more independent.
The draft law would also end sanctions against judges who raise questions about the status of fellow judges — many new judges have dubious legal status thanks to the government’s reforms changing how they are appointed.
The measure was approved by 203 MPs, most from the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party. There were 52 votes against and 189 MPs abstained — a sign of the opposition’s reluctance to back a measure they feel still violates the Polish constitution. It’s also dividing the ruling coalition, with PiS’s junior partner, the Euroskeptic United Poland party, rejecting the bill, saying it’s giving in to blackmail from Brussels.
The government is desperate to see the measure passed, as it’s key to getting €36 billion in grants and loans from the EU’s pandemic relief program — money PiS wants to boost its chances of winning a third term in office in this fall’s parliamentary election. The opposition can’t openly reject the bill, but is wary of giving its rivals a cash injection.
A European Commission spokesperson said Friday that Brussels is “continuing talks with Polish authorities in order to make sure that legislation is fully compliant with European laws and the commitments they have made within the framework of the resilience plans. It’s going to be very important that the final version of the law improves judicial and legal protection standards in Poland.”
The action now moves to the upper chamber Senate, where the opposition has a slim majority.
Borys Budka, a leading member of Civic Platform, the largest opposition party, promised that the bill would be “improved” in the Senate. All of the opposition’s proposed amendments were rejected in the lower chamber of parliament.
The government warned that any amendments could cause problems in getting approval from the European Commission, which insists that the Polish justice system be politically independent before releasing the relief funds.
The bill “was actually created within the framework of an agreement with the European Commission, so that what we write will not be insufficient in terms of unblocking funds,” government spokesperson Piotr Müller said before the vote.
If the Senate changes the bill, it will go back to the lower house, where it has to pass by an absolute majority of the chamber’s 460 deputies, something that will be a problem for the ruling coalition as it only has 228 MPs, of which 19 belong to United Poland.
If and when the bill makes it through the legislature, it still has to be signed into law by President Andrzej Duda, who is a PiS ally but who has expressed reservations about the measure, worrying it undermines his prerogative to appoint judges.
This article has been updated with comment from the European Commission.