Foreign
An Amsterdam Court, on Wednesday, addressed new questions to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), regarding Poland’s controversial judicial reform.
In a request for a preliminary ruling, the Amsterdam court wants to know whether a European arrest warrant issued by Poland should generally be executed, given doubts about the independence of the Polish judiciary.
“Since 2007, the independence of the Polish courts, and by consequence, the right to a due process has increasingly come under pressure,’’ the court said.
It, however, suspected that judicial independence had been eroded to such an extent that courts could not act independently of the Polish Government and parliament.
However, it was not clear when the top EU court would deliver a ruling, although the Amsterdam court had requested the case to be treated with urgency, which could lead to a decision within few months.
The backdrop of the case is an arrest warrant issued by Poland in 2015 against a Pole, who smuggled around 200 kilogrammes of hard and soft drugs from the Netherlands to his home country.
Regarding a similar case involving Ireland in 2018, the ECJ ruled that European authorities could suspend a Polish arrest warrant, but only under specific conditions in individual cases.
The Amsterdam court has requested a more general ruling on Polish arrest warrants in cases of real danger of an unfair trial due to courts’ structural and fundamental flaws.
Deputy Justice Minister, Michal Wojcik, recently told the News Agency, PAP, that the Dutch judges should follow in the footsteps of the Irish case from 2018. (NAN)
– Aug. 05, 2020 @ 13:23 GMT |
Tags: asks EU judges to rule Dutch court questions Polish judicial reforms
