Upon the decision of the Executive Board, the ENCJ convenes an Extraordinary General Assembly on 28-29 October 2021 in Vilnius to vote on the Polish Judicial National Council/Krajowa Rada Sadownictwa expulsion from the Association. On 27 May 2020 the Executive Board of the ENCJ already proposed to the ENCJ General Assembly to convene as soon as possible as the Covid-19 pandemic would allow it, that the KRS be expelled. 

It should be recalled that on 17 September 2018, the ENCJ suspended the KRS from membership of the ENCJ because it considered that the Polish KRS no longer met the condition for membership that a Council for the Judiciary must be  independent from the executive and legislature. Since then the ENCJ has followed developments closely and the Board believes that there are no improvements in the way the KRS fulfils its duty to guarantee the independence of the judiciary.  

The ENCJ statutes provide an explicit rule for the expulsion of a member (Article 6.4). 

Article 6 – Membership

The Executive Board may propose the expulsion of a member of the Association if it has committed serious breaches of the aims and objectives of the Association as set out in Articles 3 and 4 above. The Executive Board must first of all give the member in question the opportunity to state its position. Any expulsion must be decided upon by the General Assembly by a three quarters majority of the members present at that meeting.

The ENCJ aims to improve cooperation between, and good mutual understanding amongst, the Councils for the Judiciary and the members of the Judiciary of the European Union Member States. This objective brings with it a common responsibility to uphold the fundament of our common European legal order, especially the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary within that order.

Brussels, 17 September 2021