Poland's judicial independence battle with the EU (2017-2024)
Poland's Law and Justice (PiS) party restructured the judiciary by changing the composition of the National Council of the Judiciary, creating a new disciplinary chamber for judges, and lowering the Supreme Court retirement age to force out sitting justices. The European Court of Justice ruled multiple elements violated EU law, and the European Commission withheld billions in pandemic recovery funds as leverage.
Poland's judiciary operated under parallel authority structures for years, with EU-aligned and government-aligned courts issuing contradictory rulings.
PiS lost power in 2023, and the incoming Tusk government began reversing the reforms — but unwinding institutional changes proved far harder than making them.
Italy's reform echoes key elements of Poland's playbook: restructuring the judicial council, changing how members are selected, and creating new disciplinary bodies. Critics argue the Italian lottery mechanism, while different in form from Poland's parliamentary appointment model, achieves a similar result — breaking the judiciary's control over its own governance.