Poland rows back on controversial Supreme Court law

The Law and Justice party will comply with an ECJ ruling.

Wojtek Radwanski/AFP via Getty Images

Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party proposed a legislative amendment Wednesday, backtracking on controversial reforms it made to lower the retirement age of Supreme Court judges.

The move in July to reduce the retirement age from 70 to 65 was seen by critics as a way for PiS to hand pick its own judges, and the European Court of Justice issued a ruling that ordered Poland to suspend the measures and reinstate those judges who had lost their jobs.

According to Reuters, the draft amendment states that it “constitutes an execution of the European Court of Justice injunction.”

The reforms have been at the center of a dispute between Poland and Brussels over the rule of law, and triggered protests across Poland in the summer.

The government had defended the move as the introduction of a “system that has proven itself in Western Europe.”

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