As Civic Platform (KO) and Polish People’s Party (PSL) candidate for mayor of Kraków, Monika Piątkowska made several trips to Russia at taxpayers’ expense between 2008 and 2011 while serving as a director at Kraków City Hall, according to findings by Gazeta Polska. She took part in an official delegation to St. Petersburg, where the Kraków municipal authorities organized a Polish-Russian friendship evening, co-organized Moscow Days with the support of Kremlin officials, and attended a gathering of the pro-Putin Russkiy Mir Foundation – a propaganda organization headed by a former deputy chief of the KGB.
Żurek’s Ministry Tells Judges What to Do! Ready-Made Court Filing Sent Across Poland
Have all boundaries been crossed? Poland’s Ministry of Justice – specifically Piotr Raczkowski, director of one of its departments – has sent guidelines to judges across the country instructing them how to proceed in certain cases. The ministry even prepared a ready-made court filing template. Lawyers are astonished, arguing that this constitutes a direct interference with judicial independence. The controversy stems from a ruling by a German court refusing to surrender a wanted person to Poland under a European Arrest Warrant (EAW), citing concerns about conditions in Polish prisons and the risk of “inhuman treatment.”
On May 13, 2026, a German court refused to execute a European Arrest Warrant issued by the Regional Court in Warsaw. According to the court’s reasoning, judges in Kiel were concerned about prison conditions in Poland and the possibility of “systemic deficiencies” within the country’s prison system.
In other words, the German court concluded that the Polish authorities had failed to dispel concerns that the surrendered individual could be held in conditions violating human rights standards. The decisive factor was Poland’s failure to provide so-called assurances regarding the detention conditions that would apply to the specific individual.
Instructions from the Ministry
The Ministry of Justice, headed by Waldemar Żurek, responded to the ruling. As established by Niezalezna, the ministry sent instructions to the presidents of courts across Poland on how to proceed in similar cases. The document was described as a “standard for providing information and assurances.” Niezalezna obtained its contents – and they are surprising.
In a letter signed by Judge Piotr Raczkowski, Director of the Department for the Enforcement of Judgments and Probation, the ministry outlines a scenario in which a single German ruling could trigger a domino effect: more refusals by German courts, similar decisions by courts in other countries, and ultimately the weakening of the principle of mutual trust on which the entire European Arrest Warrant system is based. The department warns that this could undermine efforts to prosecute wanted individuals and damage confidence in Poland’s justice system.
“Analysis of the case indicates that the decisive factor in the German court’s ruling was the Polish side’s failure to provide assurances regarding the detention conditions of the wanted person,” Director Raczkowski wrote.
The Ministry Tells Judges What to Do
This is where the most controversial part begins. Rather than merely identifying the problem, the department director lays out a detailed step-by-step procedure for presidents of appellate courts.
According to the ministry’s recommendation, each regional court should personally respond to foreign inquiries regarding prison conditions. Before doing so, the court should first request information on detention conditions from the Central Board of the Prison Service and also seek “the position of the Ministry of Justice” from the Department for the Enforcement of Judgments and Probation.
The court should then prepare its response “using the template” drafted by the ministry and attach both the Prison Service’s opinion and the department’s position.
“I kindly request that you inform the presidents of the regional courts under your supervision about the contents of this letter, in particular the need to ensure that the indicated procedure is applied in practice, together with instructions to continuously provide the Department for the Enforcement of Judgments and Probation with information about cases and reasons for refusals to execute European Arrest Warrants by judicial authorities of other Member States, including those issued during preparatory proceedings,” the letter states.
A Ready-Made Template from the Director
Most remarkably, the ready-made template intended for judges was actually attached to Director Raczkowski’s cover letter.
The several-page template contains blanks to be filled in and states that the court “provides a binding assurance” that the wanted person will be detained only in a facility meeting the required standards. Blank spaces were left for the court’s name, case number, and location – meaning that, in practice, the judge only needs to enter the relevant details and sign it.
The final paragraph of the ministry’s “template” even includes a ready-made conclusion:
“Taking into account the information and guarantees provided above, it should be concluded that there are no grounds for finding the existence of a real and individual risk of a violation of the wanted person’s fundamental rights following his or her surrender to the Republic of Poland. Consequently, there are no grounds justifying refusal to execute the European Arrest Warrant.”
The letter was sent to the presidents of all appellate courts with a request that it be forwarded “down the chain” to regional courts, together with instructions to apply the procedure in practice. Whether judges will view it as a helpful template or as pressure on their judicial independence remains to be seen.