WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland's president took the oath from 27 new Supreme Court judges Wednesday, stepping up the conflict over control of the judiciary and ignoring another top court that said the appointments should be suspended pending an opinion by European Union judges.
President Andrzej Duda appointed judges to the civil and penal chambers of the court as well as to its new chamber of extraordinary control, according to his top aide, Pawel Mucha.
"We are implementing another stage of the reform of the justice system that is so important to us," Mucha said, adding: "We are acting in the public interest."
The new judges are part of changes made to the judiciary by the ruling conservative Law and Justice party, which says that judges active during the communist era must be replaced.
Many of the court's judges have been forced to retire early, but argue that the move was unconstitutional.
The court is seeking the opinion of the EU's Court of Justice and, backed by a decision by the Supreme Administrative Court, has suspended the nomination of new judges. Also, the European Commission has asked the EU court's view on the broad changes to Poland's judiciary and on the suspension of new nominations. Its ruling will be binding for all 28 EU member states.
Mucha insisted that the controversy does not affect the president's powers to appoint judges and that the court's workload required the swift appointment of new members.
Disclaimer: This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Associated Press (AP) wire.
