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Once again, MEDEL honours the memory of Giovanni Falcone, the Italian judge assassinated by the mafia on May 23rd, 1992, by marking this date as the Alert Day for the Independence of Justice.
All over Europe, the COVID-19 pandemic showed the fragile situation of judicial systems to cope with exceptional times, when they are most needed to ensure respect for the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens.
The President of MEDEL gave an interview to the website Cosmocène about the attacks against the Rule of Law in Poland and Hungary.
MEDEL welcomes the decision of the European Court of Justice of 8 April 2020 obliging Poland to suspend the activity of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court with regard to disciplinary cases concerning judges.
The court pointed out that the fact that the independence of the Sąd Najwyższy may not be guaranteed is likely to cause serious damage to the EU legal order, to the citizens’ rights and to the values set out in Article 2 TEU, on which the EU is founded, in particular the rule of law. Consequently, the application of the national provisions at issue, in as much as they confer jurisdiction for ruling in disciplinary cases concerning judges of the Sąd Najwyższy and of the ordinary courts to a body, namely the Izba Dyscyplinarna, whose independence might not be guaranteed, is likely to cause serious and irreparable harm to the EU legal order.
Last months and weeks turned upside down the world as we know it. Thousands of people already lost their lives as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many more are struggling with the disease, we all live in fear for health – our relatives’ and ours. Inevitable economic crisis will strike everyone, we will face multitudes of unemployed, many will fall into extreme poverty. We enter this new reality with fear, remembering the not so distant history, especially of the economic crisis in the 30’s decade of last century, which became the breeding ground for populism and nationalism resulting in the great tragedy of World War II.
These experiences gave us a lesson of the need for international collaboration and solidarity and of the key role of democracy, separation of powers and human rights.
MEDEL is present from 24 to 27 February 2020 at the Second High-Level Meeting of the Global Judiciary Integrity Network, held in Doha, Qatar, organised by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
You can find here the english translation of an article about the verdict against Murat Arslan, written by Ingrid Heilein, the German colleague who has been observing as MEDEL representative the trial of Murat Arslan.
The article was originally published in December 2019 in the German magazine "Betrifft Justiz". Read it below.
The next MEDEL meeting will take place in Florence, Italy, on the 28th and 29th of February 2020.
On Friday, 28th of February 2020, in a co-organization with the Dipartamento Scienze Giuridiche of the Università di Firenze, a conference on the topic of ”Public Prosecution and Rule of Law in Europe” will take place at Universita di Firenze – SAGAS, Pallazzo Fenzi, Aula Magna, Via San Gallo 10.
The MEDEL CA meeting will take place on Saturday, February 29th, 2020, at the Centro studi per la storia del pensiero giuridico moderno, Piazza Indipendenza 9.
MEDEL welcomes the decision of the European Commission announced on January 14th, 2020, requesting the European Court of Justice to apply Interim Measures in the infringement procedure regarding the disciplinary regime for Polish judges.
The situation in Poland significantly deteriorated over the last months, with new laws intended to further weaken judicial independence and to effectively forbid the implementation of ECJ rulings in Poland.
A delegation of MEDEL composed by Filipe Marques, Mariarosaria Guglielmi and Monika Frackowiak was received on January 6th by the new EU Commissioner of Justice, Didier Reynders, in Brussels.
In the meeting, we had the opportunity to transmit to Commissioner Reynders our deep concern about the breaches of the fundamental principles of the Rule of Law in several Member States, focusing mainly in the situation in Poland, Romania and Bulgaria, and appealed for a strong and determined reaction by the Commission, as guardian of the treaties.
MEDEL has signed an open letter about the recent attacks on judges and the independence of the Judiciary in Poland and asking for the adoption of interim measures by the European Court of Justice. The statement is below.
For more than four years, MEDEL has been observing the process of deterioration of the rule of law in Poland. During this time, MEDEL has repeatedly called upon Polish authorities to stop this process, to restore the principle of separation of powers and to ensure the independence of the judiciary.
Our calls remained unanswered. The Government of Poland as well as the President of Poland ignore the appeals of the international community, the verdicts of the European Court of Justice, the verdicts of the Polish Supreme Court and the verdicts of the Polish Supreme Administrative Court. Moreover, the “reforms” in contrary to both – domestic and international law – continue, and all those trying to implement aforementioned rulings, become the subject of a ruthless “disciplinary” regime, become criminals in their own country. The only objective of the Polish government is to reduce the independent judiciary and transform it to yet another strong arm of the executive.
