Poland moves to reinstate retired judges to Supreme Court

Poland's ruling party submitted draft legislation to parliament on Wednesday that would reinstate Supreme Court judges who were recently forced into early retirement.

The development comes a month after the European Union's top court ordered Poland to immediately suspend a law that lowered the retirement age for Supreme Court judges, forcing about two dozen of them off the bench.

Poland has been in a standoff with the European Union for three years over attempts by the ruling populist Law and Justice party to impose control over the court system.

Many legal experts said that the forced retirement of the Supreme Court judges, including the chief justice, violated Poland's constitution.

That, along with the broader overhaul of the justice system, has raised serious concerns over rule of law in the young democracy, with the EU saying the changes erode the independence of the judicial branch of government.

Wednesday's legislative initiative marks one of the first significant steps by Poland to comply with EU demands.

A Law and Justice lawmaker, Marek Ask, said that under the draft amendment to the new law on the Supreme Court, the judges who were forced to retire early will have a choice of returning to their duties.

The law had lowered the retirement age from 70 to 65, and any who wished to remain had to request the consent of the president, who had the power to refute.

Members of the parliament were expected to begin debating the amendment on Wednesday.

The development comes after local elections last month that showed Law and Justice winning the most seats in regional assemblies, but losing badly in mayoral races in the cities and even mid-size towns.

The results seemed to indicate that the party's conflicts with the EU have cost it votes among urban, middle-class voters.

Some members of the pro-EU political opposition have also been warning that the government's constant conflicts with Brussels could put the country on a path to eventually leave the bloc, whether that is what the government intends or not.

The EU is hugely popular in Poland thanks to the new freedoms it opened up to Poles to travel and work abroad and an economic boom at home.