The controversial disciplinary chamber of Poland’s Supreme Court has revoked the immunity of a judge who has been an outspoken critic of the government’s judicial overhaul, amid a deepening clash between Warsaw and Brussels over the rule of law.
The removal of Igor Tuleya’s immunity relates to his involvement in a contentious case three years ago, and comes as Poland and Hungary threaten to veto the EU’s €1.8tn budget and recovery package over a mechanism that would link access to funds to judicial independence.
Polish prosecutors had requested the removal of Mr Tuleya’s immunity, claiming that he had exceeded his powers by allowing journalists to hear and record his ruling on a disputed 2016 parliamentary vote that should have been issued behind closed doors
However, Mr Tuleya’s supporters say he was legally entitled to make the hearing public and that the push to remove his immunity is harassment.
They also criticise the disciplinary chamber itself, which was introduced by the ruling Law and Justice party as part of a sweeping judicial overhaul that has sparked a series of lawsuits from Brussels over concerns that it undermines the independence of Poland’s judiciary.
“The removal of Igor Tuleya’s immunity by an organ which does not meet the criteria of a court in the understanding of national or EU law is a manifestation of the repression of a judge whose rulings are uncomfortable for politicians of the ruling camp, and who dared to publicly criticise the damaging changes made by the ruling camp in the judicial sphere,” said Iustitia, an organisation that represents Polish judges.
Law and Justice officials say that the disciplinary chamber is necessary to ensure that judges are not unaccountable and that the judicial overhaul more broadly is needed to reform an inefficient and slow-moving system.
However, earlier this year the EU’s top court ordered Poland to suspend the chamber’s activities because of concerns over its lack of independence. Mr Tuleya said before the decision on Wednesday to revoke his immunity that he would ignore it.
“No political court can take me away from ruling. I am a European judge, I am not going to accept the decision of the disciplinary chamber and will continue to adjudicate,” he said in a statement issued via Iustitia.
The removal of Mr Tuleya’s immunity came as Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, delivered an impassioned speech to parliament in which he insisted Poland would not accept the EU’s new mechanism linking of EU funds to the rule of law. He warned that the bloc risked becoming an “oligarchy” in which strong states dominated the weak.
“[This is about] whether our fate should be in our hands, whether we will decide ourselves about our affairs, or whether it will be in the hands of others. This is not a divide between right and left. This is a divide between those who want the Polish nation to decide for itself and those who think a few bureaucrats in Brussels should decide on our fate,” he said.
“The rule of law [means] the right of states to reform their judicial system in accordance with the [EU] treaties and their own constitution . . . We say loudly, ‘yes’ to the EU but loudly ‘no’ to mechanisms that scold us like children and treat Poland differently from other EU countries.”