Legal provisions of COM(2017)835 - Determination of a clear risk of a serious breach by Poland of the rule of law

Please note

This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.

dossier COM(2017)835 - Determination of a clear risk of a serious breach by Poland of the rule of law.
document COM(2017)835 EN
date December 20, 2017


Article 1 There is a clear risk of a serious breach by the Republic of Poland of the rule of law.

Article 2

The Council recommends that the Republic of Poland take the following actions within three months after notification of this Decision:

(a)          restore the independence and legitimacy of the Constitutional Tribunal as guarantor of the Polish Constitution by ensuring that its judges, its President and its Vice-President are lawfully elected and appointed, by implementing fully the judgments of the Constitutional Tribunal of 3 and 9 December 2015 which require that the three judges that were lawfully nominated in October 2015 by the previous legislature can take up their function of judge in the Constitutional Tribunal, and that the three judges nominated by the new legislature without a valid legal basis no longer adjudicate without being validly elected;

(b)         publish and implement fully the judgments of the Constitutional Tribunal of 9 March 2016, 11 August 2016 and 7 November 2016;

(c)          ensure that the law on the Supreme Court, the law on Ordinary Courts Organisation, the law on the National Council for the Judiciary and the law on the National School of Judiciary are amended in order to ensure their compliance with the requirements relating to the independence of the judiciary, the separation of powers and legal certainty;

(d)         ensure that any justice reform is prepared in close cooperation with the judiciary and all interested parties, including the Venice Commission;

(e)          refrain from actions and public statements which could undermine further the legitimacy of the Constitutional Tribunal, the Supreme Court, the ordinary courts, the judges, individually or collectively, or the judiciary as a whole.

This Decision is addressed to the Republic of Poland.