On June 24th @EUCourtPress ruled that the decision of the PL gov to lower retirement age for Supreme Court's judges breach the principles of the irremovability of judges & judicial independence. Although gov. revised rules since EC opened the case the ruling matters. #Thread
1. It effectively undermines the gov narrative that the EU, let alone ECJ, has no right to intervene in what PiS sees as domestic issues.
2. The Court argues that whereas it is up to MS themselves to determine the organisation of their courts they have to abide with the EU law while doing so.
3. Here is where article 19 TUE kicks in- the MS courts are effectively EU's courts as so far as they apply and interpret EU law.
4. The ECJ has also demolished the gov. narrative that it simply wanted to unify the retirement age and as such made it much more difficult for PiS to effectively use these arguments in the future.
5. The ruling is a big win for the Commission which had long hesitated on whether to press ahead with the case or not. I wrote about it here: cer.eu/insights/time-…
6. It also gives a political ammunition to those MS which have insisted on linking the the respect for the rule of law with the distribution of the cohesion funds in the next #MFF
7. It is less clear on whether the ruling will have an effect on the #Article7 procedure. Some MS wanted deliberately to wait with any further actions for the ECJ. A prominent journalist put it to me yesterday- if anything the ruling has revealed ineffectiveness of the article 7
8. Will the ECJ ruling harm the governing party and affect its standing at home ahead of the autumn general elections? I don't think so- the opposition failed to convince the public that the government's actions lead to PL isolation in the EU.
9. On the contrary- some Poles might have even bought into the gov. narrative that with PiS in power 'Poland is at the heart of Europe' (campaign slogan).
10. The political opposition needs to come up with a better strategy on how to win the public back - Poles are pro-European but increasingly willing to contest some of EU policies. Opposition needs to shift a debate away from PiS narrative on whether we need more or less Europe
11...and focus on the debate on desirability of individual policies such as climate, migration etc. The Polish incoming MEPs should facilitate this debate.
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