The National Council of the Judiciary (KRS) is the constitutional body that vets and recommends judges.
Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek said on Thursday the proposal is designed as a compromise and urged President Karol Nawrocki to study it carefully.
“We want this law signed, not thrown out,” Żurek said, adding that the bill “stabilizes the system.”
He appealed to lawmakers, including the opposition, to assess the text on its merits and called it “the best legal act we can vote on together.”
The draft’s formal title is the “Act on Restoring the Right to an Independent and Impartial Court Established by Law by Regulating the Effects of Resolutions of the National Council of the Judiciary Adopted in 2018–2025.”
The ministry said it expects the measure to enter the Cabinet’s work program next week and aims for passage in December.
Officials stressed the draft aligns with Poland’s Constitution, European Union law, and guidance from the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe’s advisory body on constitutional matters.
The ministry framed the bill as a response to appointments made after parliament reshaped the KRS in December 2017–-changes that took effect in 2018.
Judges appointed in procedures involving that version of the KRS are often called “neo-judges” by critics.
Under the bill, competitions for posts filled with the participation of the post-2017 KRS would be run again in front of a “legal KRS,” to be reconstructed under a separate law the ministry says is already in advanced drafting.
The ministry emphasized that judgments issued by disputed appointees would, as a rule, remain in force if the parties did not challenge them.
The text divides affected judges into groups with different outcomes. Graduates of the National School of Judiciary and Public Prosecution (KSSiP) would become “unquestioned judges” despite having gone through the post-2017 KRS procedure.
Żurek put this cohort at about 1,100 people.
Judges who were originally appointed legally but gained promotions between 2018 and 2025 with the involvement of the current KRS would return to their previous courts and, by statute, be delegated for two years to their present posts while they compete for those positions before the reconstituted KRS.
Their past rulings would stand even if they do not win the renewed competitions, and they could choose to step away from their current functions.
A separate group consists of individuals in the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court whose acts of appointment the ministry deems invalid.
They would not continue to adjudicate there or remain on delegation.
Żurek argued this category is especially costly for the state because high court rulings are final and adverse findings have led to damages.
Another group of 379 appointees who moved into the common courts from other legal professions, such as attorneys and legal advisers, could become court referendaries, a judicial decision-making role in Poland, or enter new competitions.
Those who entered the judiciary from the prosecution service in recent years would return to the prosecution. Across the system, two-year delegations would apply while renewed competitions run.
Waldemar Żurek. Photo: PAP/Albert Zawada
Deputy Justice Minister Dariusz Mazur described the approach as “inclusive.”
The bill would also reshape the Supreme Court’s internal structure. It would abolish the Chamber of Extraordinary Review and Public Affairs, whose members all passed through the post-2017 KRS process, and remove the extraordinary complaint, a special remedy introduced in recent years.
In its place, the ministry proposes expanding the list of authorities authorised to file a cassation appeal, a form of top-level review in Poland, and creating a mechanism to prevent more than one final inheritance order from existing in the same succession case, a problem that has featured in extraordinary-complaint litigation.
The Chamber of Professional Liability would be reformed and continue as a second-instance disciplinary body for legal professions, with judges to be indicated for service there by the First President of the Supreme Court from a randomly selected pool, which the ministry says would remove executive influence from the chamber’s composition.
Justice ministry officials argued that the legislation is needed for legal and financial reasons.
They said rulings by disputed appointees have cost public coffers more than PLN 5.5 million (EUR 1.3 million, USD 1.5 million) in damages related to violations of the right to a court found by the European Court of Human Rights.
They warned that potential liabilities could reach PLN 48 million.
The ministry also noted that the European Commission deducted nearly PLN 3 billion from EU funds in connection with rule-of-law breaches, including adjudication by the Supreme Court’s now-defunct Disciplinary Chamber.
“These are real costs the Polish taxpayer has already borne,” Deputy Justice Minister Maria Ejchart said.
Marek Safjan, chair of the Civil Law Codification Commission at the ministry, said citizens “must regain the right to a court,” which he called an elementary right, and argued that Poland within the European Union “cannot maintain a diseased system.”
He said the reset should happen quickly and comprehensively.
Krystian Markiewicz, who leads the Codification Commission on the System of the Judiciary and the Prosecution Service, said the bill will not fix everything but will set the direction for other laws.
The ministry plans additional drafts on the KRS and on judicial self-governance.
Asked about a fallback if the president vetoes the package, Żurek declined to outline alternatives.
He said he speaks about completed actions, not distant plans, and repeated that the ministry does have plans if needed.
(rt/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP