Poland's president on Wednesday said he signed into law two controversial judicial reforms that opposition politicians and the EU insist undermine the rule of law and the separation of powers. President Andrzej Duda said he had "decided to sign" reforms to the Supreme Court and the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS) pushed through parliament this month by the rightwing Law and Justice (PiS) government.
His move came as the European Union launched unprecedented disciplinary proceedings against Poland on Wednesday over a long string of highly controversial judicial reforms which Brussels says threaten the rule of law.
The two new reforms endorsed by Duda allow parliament - now dominated by the governing PiS party - to decide who sits on the KRS body meant to guarantee judicial independence and empower the president to decide which judges may stay on in the Supreme Court after the age of 65. Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muiznieks, has insisted that the new reforms "will further undermine the independence of the judiciary by subordinating it to the executive and the legislature and will thereby further erode the separation of powers and the rule of law."
Duda, however, defended the constitutionality of his moves Wednesday insisting that in the "United States the president chooses Supreme Court judges, while the Senate gives its opinion; judges' circles have no say in the matter."
The new Polish law on the Supreme Court reduces the retirement age of its members to 65 from 70 as a way to "decommunise" it by removing judges who served in communist courts before the regime collapsed in 1989.
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