President swears in new justice minister

Marek Biernacki speaks to members of the press: photo - PAP/Jacek Turczyk

“I would like citizens to feel at the end of my term in office that the state has changed,” Biernacki told reporters, as cited by the Polish Press Agency (PAP), following a ceremony held by President Bronislaw Komorowski.

Biernacki, who served as interior minister from 1999-2001, said that he wants both “to improve the efficiency of the judiciary, and on the other hand to bear in mind the citizen.”

The new minister stressed three central aims, including making further amendments to the old communist era law of 1985 on the prosecutor's office.

He likewise stated that “the second element which makes the citizen suffer is the excessive length of court cases.”

Thirdly, he championed a reform of the economic courts.

Biernacki also pledged that he would also work with “great determination on further waves of deregulation,” continuing the programme of his predecessor.

Former minister Jaroslaw Gowin had set in motion a programme to strip a series of 49 professions of red tape, a policy he had stated would create thousands of new jobs, from taxi-drivers to tourist guides.

Gowin was sacked last week by Prime Minister Donald Tusk after suggesting that German scientists were experimenting on Polish embryos.

Although Gowin had voted against the centre-right coalition government on a number of social issues, including draft legislation on civil partnerships, he claimed last week that key causes for the rupture were “differences over economic affairs.”

Meanwhile, President Komorowski wished the new minister well, adding that he hoped that “these changes will strengthen relations between ministers,” noting that “team-work is the hardest test.” (nh)