Zbigniew Ziobro was speaking after the EU executive on Thursday said it had decided to refer Poland to the European Union's top court over new disciplinary rules for judges, in the latest step in a prolonged dispute over alleged rule-of-law breaches.
"This is a political move and an attempt to interfere in the course of Polish elections,” Ziobro told reporters.
He added: “Poles, due to their historical experience, are very sensitive to attempts to impose things on them from the outside, to interfere in their choices, in their political decisions. They have a great sense of dignity. And this may therefore prove to be counterproductive.”
Poles will head to the ballot box to vote in parliamentary elections on Sunday.
The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, on Thursday said it was referring Poland to the Court of Justice of the EU as part of an infringement procedure it launched against the country in April "on the grounds that the new disciplinary regime undermines the judicial independence of Polish judges and does not ensure the necessary guarantees to protect judges from political control.”
The move came after the Commission in July launched the second stage of the infringement procedure against Warsaw over the new Polish disciplinary rules for judges.
When it started its procedure against Poland on April 3, the Commission argued that new rules have undermined the independence of Polish judges "by not offering necessary guarantees to protect them from political control."
The Polish government, which denies the claims, was given two months to provide detailed explanations.
But the commission judged those to be unsatisfactory, and on July 17 launched the second stage of its proceedings, formally calling on Poland to comply with EU law, state news agency PAP reported.
The EU executive has now decided that Warsaw has "again failed to address the Commission's concerns" and referred the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union, the EU’s top court, requesting "an expedited procedure."
Row over new Polish rules
The Commission said in April that new Polish legal regulations made it possible "to subject ordinary court judges to disciplinary investigations, procedures and ultimately sanctions, on account of the content of their judicial decisions."
The EU's executive also said at the time that the new Polish “disciplinary regime does not guarantee the independence and impartiality of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court which reviews decisions taken in disciplinary proceedings against judges.”
It added: “This Disciplinary Chamber is composed solely of new judges selected by the National Council for the Judiciary whose judges-members are now appointed by the Polish parliament (Sejm)."
Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans was in early April quoted as saying at a news conference that disciplinary measures for judges that Poland’s ruling conservatives introduced in 2017 appeared “to systematically subject judges to the political control of the executive.”
Legal wrangle
The European Commission's move on Thursday was the latest in a series of clashes between Brussels and Warsaw over sweeping changes to the country’s judicial system.
In July last year, the European Commission launched a procedure against Warsaw over contested reforms to Poland’s Supreme Court, arguing they undermined “the principle of judicial independence, including the irremovability of judges.”
That move followed the European Commission in December 2017 taking the unprecedented step of triggering Article 7 of the EU Treaty against Poland, stepping up pressure on Warsaw over judicial reforms.
The Polish government has since moved to modify the disputed legal changes.
Poland's governing Law and Justice party, which came to power in late 2015, has insisted that sweeping changes are needed to reform an inefficient and sometimes corrupt judicial system tainted by the communist past.
Poland’s prime minister argued in January that some of the legal changes made by his conservative government have met with criticism abroad because they are not understood in Western Europe.
(gs/pk)
Source: PAP