Ignoring objections at home and from the European Union, Poland has decided to go ahead with the appointment of new judges to the Supreme Court.
“We’re speeding things up as much as we can,” judge Leszek Mazur told reporters on August 21.
Mazur is the new head of the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS), a body overseeing judicial impartiality whose composition was changed as part of the reforms.
As reported by Agence France-Presse (AFP), the governing conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party had introduced the forced early retirement of judges over the age of 65 as part of a raft of controversial judicial reforms that have drawn concern from Brussels.
The PiS insists the judicial changes tackle corruption and overhaul a judicial system still haunted by Poland’s communist era.
But the opposition, democracy watchdogs and the European Union have warned they undermine judicial independence, the rule of law and democracy.
Brussels has also stepped up its legal threats to Poland over the reforms, giving Warsaw one month to comply or risk being hauled before the bloc’s top court.
