At the invitation of the Speaker of the Senate, Tomasz Grodzki, a delegation of the Venice Commission came to Poland. The delegation, which acts as an advisory body to the Council of Europe, is to review the amendment to the act on the changes in the system of common courts, currently under way in the Senate.
The meeting between Speaker of the Senate, Tomasz Grodzki and the representatives of the Venice Commission lasted one hour. The talks regarded the amendment to the judiciary legislation, which has already been accepted by the lower house of the parliament and is underway in the Senate.
”The Senate is doing what the Sejm did not do – we are speaking about, and analysing, the amendment. I think the commission’s opinion will be ready in a week.The opposition hopes that the Venice Commission’s audit could stop the politicization of the judicial system, which, in their opinion, is what the ruling party is trying to achieve”- says Tomasz Grodzki, speaker of the Senate, Civic Platform.
”Law and Justice deputies would rather destroy something before repairing it. I believe that before you break something, you should first consider making changes. This is what should happen here – this legislation is very bad, it should be improved, hence the meeting with the Venice Commission”- says Władysław Teofil Bartoszewski, Polish People’s party.
The head of the Parliamentary Justice Commission, Marek Ast believes that the visit of the Venice Commission is unnecessary. The fact that it is taking place now, when the amendment is being processed by the Senate, raises doubts.
”This creates a real danger that the Senate will simply assume the remarks made by the Venice Commission. This shows how great of an influence the EU organs have on the work of the Senate”- says Marek Ast, Head of the Parliamentary Justice Commission.
Tomorrow, the Venice Commission representatives will meet with the First President of the Supreme Court, Małgorzata Gersdorf as well as the Polish ombudsman, Adam Bodnar. The opinion of the Venice Commission is to be revealed next week, on Wednesday or Thursday, which would coincide with the planned Senate sitting, scheduled to take place between the 15th and 17th of January. Unofficially, the Senate will process the judicial legislation on January 17th.