Case: C-619/18, Commission/Poland (Independence Supreme Court). 

Descriptors: Judge's Irrevocability Principle / Judicial Independence /  Retirement’s age reduction

The European Commission, in front of the disturbing and continuous decisions adopted by the polish government regarding judicial independence, decided to filed a plaint against Poland in order to determine the possible infringement of article 19.1 TEU and article 14 of the Charter.

The controversial and particular decision that motivated the Commission’s intervention against Poland was founded in a national law which arbitrarily decided to lower the judges retirement age, a measure retroactively enforced at the free discretion of the polish President, who also would retain the personal capacity to prorogate the retirement age for some judges.

The Court of Justice of European Union considered the polish law as a clear infringement of judicial independence, especially in relation with the judges irrevocability principle. The case was considered by the Court as opposed to the Associação Sindical dos juízes Portugueses precedent because, if in the latter the measure was temporal and motivated, in the former the decision was final and irreversible. In addition, the Court estimated that the President's discretionary capacity to recognize prorogues, without the existence of objective standards, would affect the capacity of judges to defend themselves against external influences and consequently would infringe the principle of judicial independence. So, the Court appreciated the existence of an infringement of article 19.1 TEU.

Read the judgement