Adam Bodnar came to the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest on May 27 to give a keynote speech at the launch event of the Rule of Law Clinic, the research team that aims to give voice to the rule of law in Europe and of which Barbara Grabowska, a member of the research project led by Dr. Sanz on the crisis of the rule of law, is the director.
The Polish parliamentary elections in 2023 marked a major change of scenery in the Polish national and European Union (EU) political landscape. After several years marked by tense relations between the EU and Poland in which the country experienced a significant decline in its democratic standards and which culminated in numerous infringement proceedings initiated by the European Commission against Poland mainly motivated by the lack of independence of its courts, the 2023 elections brought a new political coalition at the head of the Polish executive led by Donald Tusk, Prime Minister of Poland and leader of the Civic Platform.
In this sense, last December 13, 2023, Donald Tusk was sworn in as Prime Minister and together with him, his cabinet of ministers, being Adam Bodnar appointed Minister of Justice of the new government.
In his new institutional role, Adam Bodnar accepted an invitation from the CEU educational institution in Budapest to speak about the current challenges facing the new government, in particular the many institutional reforms it must implement to put the country back on the liberal path.
Barbara Grabowska, current director of the Rule of Law Clinic of the CEU Democracy Institute and member of the research team led by Dr. Sanz, was responsible for delivering welcoming remarks and introducing Minister Adam Bodnar. In her speech, Dr. Grabowska stressed the importance of demonstrating the practical application of the concept of the Rule of Law, and highlighted the commitment that academics must assume in the defense of fundamental values.
The Polish Minister of Justice wanted to start his speech by congratulating Barbara Grabowska for having brought together with 4 other Polish nationals, all of them lawyers by profession, a successful lawsuit in the Pietrzak and Bychawska-Siniarska et al. case against Poland before the European Court of Human Rights, denouncing the appropriateness of certain practices carried out by the previous executive with the regulation of secret surveillance in Poland.
Adam Bodnar then stated that the new government formed by Donald Tusk has begun to promote significant changes to protect the rule of law in Poland.
In this regard, he pointed to the need to adjust various legislative plans to the daily political reality and identified the following as objectives to be achieved in this new transition process:
- To re-establish loyalty in Poland with the European Union, as well as to implement the numerous judgments that the ECtHR has pronounced against Poland.
- Achieve important milestones to improve the functioning of the Polish judicial system, which has been the main reason why the ECJ has deployed a very broad jurisprudence against Poland to defend the protection of judicial independence.
- To put in place an action plan to deactivate the Art. 7 TEU procedure, after the Commission has submitted a formal request to withdraw the country from the procedure under this article after considering that there is no longer a risk of serious violation of the rule of law in the country.
- To obtain the effective participation of Poland in the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), an independent body of the EU judiciary whose mission is to investigate crimes against the financial interests and budget of the EU.
Regarding the legislative process, the Minister of Justice confessed that it is the most delicate task, and even though it is a complex task to undertake numerous legislative reforms, among which are a new Act regulating the National Council of Judiciary and the Polish Constitutional Court, the idea is “to be prepared to try to pass these laws and not to have them vetoed by the President”. In the process of drafting these laws, the Minister emphasized the necessary involvement of civil society organizations as well as of the society.
Finally, the Minister wanted to highlight some of the problems that the new executive is facing in this transition process. Among them, he pointed out some questions such as the limit of compromise that can be achieved in these difficult times or the fact that many of these changes are being promoted on the basis of parliamentary resolutions. However, while admitting the complexity of this process, the Minister of Justice pointed out the need to start this process of restoring the EU’s confidence in Polish institutions and admitted that “It is an interesting period. Once again, we are being a laboratory country.”
Now, as the Minister pointed out, the big question remains how to secure the future and rebuild the institutions in a sustainable way.
Adam Bodnar’s key note speech was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Barbara Grabowska and featuring Petra Bárd, Dimitry Kochenov and Eva Brems, which reflected on possible ways to restore the rule of law in Europe, as well as the important role of academics in protecting the rule of law, among other issues.
