Poland's ruling camp seeks to break rule of law impasse

A set of proposals drawn up by President Andrzej Duda, an ally of ruling nationalists Law and Justice (PiS) will form the basis of the reforms, lawmakers say, but junior coalition partner United Poland is demanding amendments. The party, led by the architect of reforms Brussels says undermine the independence of the courts, Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, has said it believes an impartiality test for judges contained in Duda's proposals could paralyse the legal system.

Polish lawmakers will on Wednesday try to thrash out a compromise on changes to the country's judicial system that could unlock billions of euros in EU pandemic recovery funds blocked due to a dispute over the rule of law. The European Union says Warsaw must implement a ruling from the bloc's top court that requires it to dissolve a contested disciplinary chamber for judges in order to get the 36 billion euros of grants and loans.

The EU's top court has also imposed fines of 1 million euros a day for Poland failing to disband the chamber, but the ruling camp is divided over how to implement the changes. A set of proposals drawn up by President Andrzej Duda, an ally of ruling nationalists Law and Justice (PiS) will form the basis of the reforms, lawmakers say, but junior coalition partner United Poland is demanding amendments.

The party, led by the architect of reforms Brussels says undermine the independence of the courts, Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, has said it believes an impartiality test for judges contained in Duda's proposals could paralyze the legal system. "We believe that the main danger which results from the proposed bill is that it allows challenges to the status of judges generally," United Poland lawmaker and Deputy Justice Minister Sebastian Kaleta said.

With the government struggling to command a razor-thin majority in parliament, arch-conservative United Poland's support will be crucial for the bill, currently being worked on by a parliamentary commission, to pass. However, the head of Duda's office, Pawel Szrot, said on Wednesday that the possibility of demanding a test of a judge's impartiality must stay in the bill, but that he believed a compromise could be found.

"If United Poland is afraid of the paralysis of the justice system... as a result of the independence test - we do not agree with this, of course, but we are ready to talk about the details," he told the Gazeta.pl website. PiS lawmaker Marek Ast said that the commission was unlikely to agree on a final version of the bill to send to parliament before Thursday, but with the president's signature necessary for any bill to become law it was clear that amendments would have to be acceptable to him.

"If this project is rewritten, probably, in the end, there may also be a risk that the president will not approve or sign this law," he said.

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