The two bills debated on Wednesday are being processed in parliamentary mode, not in the governmental mode. As the coalition MPs have repeatedly emphasised in their speeches - they were not born in the privacy of party backrooms, but result from several years of intense work by a team of experts under the aegis of the Batory Foundation.
"With these regulations we are finally restoring the rule of law and the sense of security" - said a New Left MP Katarzyna Ueberhan during Wednesday's parliamentary session of the Sejm. She added that this is an important step for citizens, as the implemented changes will allow to recreate the proper system of law control, as defined by Poland's constitution.
The proposed changes were criticised by the formerly ruling conservative Law and Justice party. Its MP Krzysztof Szczucki said that the only reason for changes is the ruling majority's willingness to take control of the Constitutional Tribunal. "Those who recently called themselves defenders of the constitution are now putting it in the grave" - Szczucki underlined.
However, it was during the recently-ended eight year reign of his party that the European Union accused the Polish government of taking 'manual control' of the nominally independent institution in question. This loss of Constitutional Tribunal's impartiality under the Law and Justice rule was one of the leading reasons for Poland's escalating conflict with the EU in that period.
This politicisation of the Constitutional Tribunal and depriving it of impartiality by the Law and Justice was pointed out by a Civic Coalition MP Barbara Dolniak - who said that the new regulations are intended to change this back. Dolniak added that her party announced the restoration of the Tribunal's independence - and that new, strong mechanisms are being created so that it won't be lost ever again. "The project resulting from our works is what both society and experts expect - and, above all, it has no political colours" - Barbara Dolniak concluded.
MP Tomasz Zimoch of Third Way Poland 2050 stated that decisive legal action is necessary to remedy the current situation in the Constitutional Tribunal. "Sandpaper is not enough for severe corrosion. It would be effective if only small rust bubbles needed to be removed. Severe rust requires grinding machines - and the draft laws regarding the heavily corroded Constitutional Tribunal are such grinders" - Zimoch explained.
According to the Wednesday-presented projects, only people who have not been a party member, an MP or a senator within the previous 4 years will be allowed to run for Poland's Constitutional Tribunal judge. The presented solutions are also intended to ensure that one parliamentary majority will not be able to permanently shape the composition of the institution in question. Therefore, the proposals included a qualified parliamentary majority of three-fifths to elect a judge, as well as the so-called staggered election - five judges elected for three years, five judges for six years, and five for a full nine-year term.
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Source: IAR, PAP, OKO.press