“I don’t know if the head of the EC is legitimized by a legal education, but I take her words as a certain lapsus, a slip of the tongue,” said the First President of the Supreme Court, Malgorzata Manowska. “I would like this abuse of Poland to finally end. I have the impression that as soon as Poland takes half a step backwards, it is pushed to the edge of another abyss under the guise of defending the rule of law,” she added.
First President of the Supreme Court Malgorzata Manowska was asked in Monday’s “Dziennik Gazeta Prawna” about, among other things, why, despite the abolition of the Supreme Court’s Disciplinary Chamber, the €1 million per day penalty ordered by the Court of Justice of the European Union is still being charged.
“I don’t understand why the penalty is being charged, and I don’t know what to do to prevent it from being charged. After Ursula von der Leyen’s recent statements, I get the impression that this is not about any rule of law. Please show me even one country where it is possible to undermine the appointment of judges – this is not in the domain of either the Supreme Court or the courts of law,” Judge Manowska said.
Earlier, the head of the European Commission, in an interview with “DGP,” said that the presidential amendment to the Supreme Court law “does not guarantee judges the possibility of challenging the status of another judge without risking disciplinary responsibility.”
President Manowska shared the view expressed at the Presidential Palace that the Commission had crossed a line, for example, by demanding that any judge in Poland can “at will” control the status of another judge, the newspaper writes.
“I don’t know if the head of the EC is legitimized by a legal education, but I take her words as a certain lapsus, a slip of the tongue,” says the First President of the Supreme Court. She announces that she does not intend to issue any orders stopping judges from adjudicating, unlike last year, when she halted the course of cases in the CJEU-challenged Disciplinary Chamber.
“DGP” recalls that the formation of the new Chamber of Professional Responsibility, which replaced the Disciplinary Chamber, is just starting. Tomorrow the First President of the Supreme Court will draw 33 judges of Supreme Court, from among whom the President will select 11 to form the new chamber. Judge Manowska recalls that “on more than one occasion” she said she did not like the way the previous NCJ was selected, and she does not like the selection of the current one.
“The government and parliament have not decided to change the law on the NCJ, although I hoped they would. But it’s not because the EC is right, I just wish this bullying of Poland would finally stop. I have the impression that as soon as Poland takes half a step backwards, it is pushed to the edge of another abyss under the guise of defending the rule of law,” assessed Judge Manowska.