Ruling party counts on opposition's vote for changes to Supreme Court law
The governing party Law and Justice (PiS) is hoping the opposition backs a bill amending the law on the Supreme Court that could unlock Poland's access to billions of euros in EU funding frozen for months due to rule-of-law concerns, the party's spokesperson has said.
Poland is due to receive EUR 23.9 billion in grants and EUR 11.5 billion in cheap loans from the EU's post-pandemic Recovery and Resilience Facility.
But the European Commission (EC) has denied Poland access to the money until it reverses, amends or withdraws changes to the judiciary that Brussels feels threaten the rule of law.
The EC has set Poland a number of conditions, or milestones, it wants met before the money can be released.
In a bid to solve the problem, MPs from the ruling party have tabled a bill in the Sejm, the lower house of parliament, amending the law on the Supreme Court with a view to satisfying one of the rule-of-law "milestones" set by the EC.
The new legislation proposes that all disciplinary issues concerning judges be settled by the top administrative court instead of the Supreme Court's Chamber of Professional Responsibility, a body created to replace a disciplinary chamber considered by the EC to be politicised.
On Wednesday, the Sejm commenced work on the bill but there are concerns in PiS ranks that it may lack the support needed in parliament for the legislation to pass.
Solidary Poland, PiS's Eurosceptic coalition ally, which is led by Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, intends to join the far-right Confederation party in voting against further work on the bill.
On Thursday, PiS spokesman Rafał Bochenek said that the opposition's support for the draft amendment to the Supreme Court law would be "valuable."
"We hope that the opposition will also vote for this bill but it remains to be seen," he told a private broadcaster Radio Zet.
"Some opposition leaders spoke out against this bill not very strongly, so I think there is a chance that at least some groups will decide to support this solution," Bochenek added.
