An opinion adopted today by the Council of Europe’s constitutional law experts, the Venice Commission, found that Poland’s new Act on the Constitutional Tribunal does not meet two essential standards of balance of power in government: the independence of the judiciary and the position of the constitutional court as the final arbiter in constitutional issues.
The act contains some improvements since the Venice Commission published an initial opinion earlier this year, including the reduction of the majority vote for a judgment from two-thirds to a simple majority, and the absence of provisions on the initiation of disciplinary proceedings against judges by the president of Poland and the minister of justice.
However, these and other improvements are too limited in scope, because other provisions of the adopted act would considerably delay and obstruct the work of the tribunal, possibly make its work ineffective, as well as undermine its independence by exercising excessive legislative and executive control over its functioning. (more...)