WARSAW (Reuters) -Interim measures imposed on the Polish judicial system by the top European court are against the Polish constitution, Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal said on Wednesday, deepening the political conflict between Warsaw and Brussels.
Poland’s ruling right-wing nationalist Law and Justice party(PiS) has overhauled the country’s courts in recent years, arguing that it will make the judicial system more efficient and rid it of residual communist influence.
But opposition parties, human rights groups and the EU say that giving Poland’s justice minister more control over judges, forcing some out and promoting others possibly on political grounds, undermines the independence of the judiciary.
As part of proceedings initiated by Brussels against Poland, the Court of Justice of the European Union told Warsaw last year to suspend a panel it had created to discipline judges. The panel – the Polish Supreme Court’s disciplinary chamber – asked the tribunal whether such a suspension was constitutional.
The tribunal then ruled that the demand to suspend the disciplinary chamber was against the constitution.
Shortly before the ruling, the deputy head of the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) told Poland to immediately halt all activities of the chamber.
(Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska in Brussels, Alan Charlish, Anna Koper and Pawel Florkiewicz in Warsaw; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
