Polish judicial overhaul gets setback in EU ruling

Bloomberg

Poland’s populist government suffered another blow to its sweeping judicial reforms after the European Union’s highest court raised fresh concerns about the independence of judges.
The EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg said it was up to Poland’s Supreme Court to decide if a new disciplinary body for judges was autonomous from political influence, leaving the fate of the key element of the government’s judicial overhaul in the hands of its critics.
The ruling could have a broader impact on the National Council of the Judiciary, a panel that has selected
several hundred judges to
numerous courts, including members of the disciplinary chamber.
The Supreme Court said it needs time to access the ruling while Poland’s president Andrzej Duda said the disciplinary panel was fully free from politics.
The case goes to the heart of Poland’s wide-ranging court overhauls, which have triggered numerous lawsuits by the EU regarding the government’s alleged failure to protect the rule of law and uphold the bloc’s values.