Jacek Czaputowicz was speaking after Poland’s Supreme Court last month asked the Court of Justice of the European Union to rule on whether a new Polish law lowering the retirement age for judges was in line with the bloc’s anti-discrimination regulations.
The Supreme Court in early August said it would suspend the new law pending a verdict by the EU court, but its decision has been slammed by top officials as “unconstitutional” and having “no legal basis.”
Warsaw will respect the top EU court’s ruling even if the verdict is not in Poland's favour, Czaputowicz said, according to reports.
“… We believe that our reforms are in line with the values of the European Union and do not threaten the stability or independence of the Polish judicial system, but instead strengthen it,” Czaputowicz said, as quoted by public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency.
He added: “But if a ruling were to be issued that is in part not in our favour, then Poland will presumably carry out this ruling. There is no worry that we could choose to disregard the verdict of the Court of Justice in a demonstrative manner."
Czaputowicz also said that an earlier statement by Deputy Prime Minister Jarosław Gowin—who told reporters in late August that Warsaw could ignore a European Court of Justice decision if it were to render the Polish reforms ineffective—was not the official position of the Polish government.
Poland's Supreme Court reforms, introduced earlier this year, have drawn flak at home and abroad.
In early July, the European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, launched a procedure against Warsaw over its reform of the Supreme Court, saying that it undermined “the principle of judicial independence, including the irremovability of judges."
The move followed the European Commission last December taking the unprecedented step of triggering Article 7 of the EU Treaty against Poland, stepping up pressure on Warsaw over judicial reforms and possibly paving the way for sanctions being imposed on Poland.
But Poland's governing Law and Justice (PiS) party, which came to power in late 2015, has said that sweeping changes are needed to reform an inefficient and sometimes corrupt judicial system tainted by the communist past, accusing judges of being an elite, self-serving clique often out of touch with the problems of ordinary citizens.
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Source: IAR