Thread by @ProfPech

Poland’s #ruleoflaw crisis in (some key) figures: my public service thread of the week ahead of the #Marsz1000tóg this Saturday

https://twitter.com/JudgesSsp/status/1214975629923364869

2: The number of EU infringement actions lost by current Polish authorities for blatantly violating principles of judicial independence & irremovability of judges

3: The number of Constitutional Tribunal (CT) judges elected in Oct 2015 whose oath the Polish President has (unconstitutionally) refused to take, with 3 also the number of unlawful “judges” now sitting on captured no longer independent/legitimate CT

4: The (minimum) number of individual complaints lodged with European Court of Human Rights regarding different aspects of ruling party’s so-called “judicial reforms” (more have been lodged - if you know application numbers do let me know)

5: The number of judgments issued in 2015 and 2016 by (not-yet-captured) CT yet to be “fully implemented” by Polish authorities + the number of CT judges (unconstitutionally) sworn in by Polish President at 1.30am(!) on 26 Nov 2015

13: The number of “laws affecting the entire structure of the justice system in Poland” at time of activation of Art 7(1) in *Dec 2017* and whose common pattern is to structurally undermine judicial independence to the benefit of ruling party. More laws have been adopted since...

15: The number of judge-members of the National Council for the Judiciary were (unconstitutionally) terminated before the end of their four-year mandate *which is established in the constitution* (Poland's NCJ has since been suspended by @encj_office)

18: The number of pending national requests for a preliminary ruling originating from (not-yet-captured) Polish courts and raising judicial independence issues (this is unprecedented in the history of the EU)

20: The (minimum) number of judges smeared, harassed and threatened by secret troll farm organised from within Poland’s Ministry of Justice (MoJ)

23: The number of members of ENCJ-suspended Polish NCJ who have been picked by or have close connections with ruling party

27: The number of Supreme Court judges who were unlawfully, forcibly retired via a retroactive, arbitrary lowering of their retirement age

29: The number of months it took the Polish government to publish the Constitutional Tribunal ruling of 9 March 2016 *with an unconstitutional disclaimer* to add insult to injury (with rulings of 11 August and 7 November 2016 similarly published on 5 June 2018)

32: The number of prolongations of contract granted out of 130 requests from sitting ordinary court judges to continue working beyond new retirement age by law found to breach EU law in Case C-192/18 at a time where 600 vacancies existed

32: Also number of places Poland lost under stewardship of PiS in @TheWJP #RuleofLaw index when it comes to constraints on government powers since 2015 (Poland’s “global rank” = 18/102 in 2015; now 50/126 | regional rank from 14/24 to 21/24 in 2018-19 ranking)

@TheWJP 44: number of vacant posts in the Supreme Court published by the Polish President on 29 June 2018 so as to capture the Supreme Court from within (11 additional posts published on 28 August 2018)

50: The % of potential reduction of post allowance for up to 6 months for any lower level court (vice) presidents re alleged mismanagement by higher level presidents or MoJ with possible appeal to MoJ… (who’s now also the Prosecutor General at the same time…)

65: The lowered retirement age retroactively imposed on sitting Supreme Court judges on the basis of law found by ECJ to have violated principles of judicial independence/irremovability of judges: reconnect-europe.eu/blog/pech-plat…

98: The number of ordinary court judges illegally forced into early retirement by Polish authorities and whose tenure was not prolonged before the adoption of the 12 April 2018 amendments

114: The (minimum) number of prosecutors who “have been moved from the general prosecutor’s office and regional offices to … lower ranking positions”. Why? see below

160: The number of presidents and vice-presidents of courts who have been dismissed under 6-month transitional regime which gave MoJ power to arbitrarily dismiss them *without* any specific criteria, justification and judicial review in period btw 12 August 2017 and 12 Feb 2018

267: The number of the provision of the Treaty of the Functioning of the EU which Commission (rightly) argues Polish authorities are violating with their new Soviet-inspired disciplinary regime for judges (1st time TBOMK an infringement case has been initiated on this basis)

1,174: The number of disciplinary investigations targeting judges which were started in a year and a half = approximately 10% of all Polish judges are under disciplinary investigations!

4,370: The number of tweets mostly targeting critical (read independent) judges published by an anonymous account seemingly linked to MoJ secret troll farm previously mentioned

To conclude situation is out of control and urgent EU actions/sanctions needed verfassungsblog.de/open-letter-to…