FOR Communications

The five questions referred for a preliminary ruling regarded recent changes in the laws regulating the judicial system.

The questions complement the proceedings conducted by the European Commission, which also has doubts regarding the Act on the Supreme Court.

The Timbro Sharing Economy Index is the first global index of the sharing economy. The index has been compiled using traffic volume data and scraped data, and provides a unique insight into the driving factors behind the peer-to-peer economy.

The Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy proposes to return to the harmful policy of the PiS government from 2016-2017: the stepwise increases in the minimum wage(14.3% in total). In 2019, the minimum wage would increase from the current PLN 2100 to 2250. This raise (7.1%) would be higher than the forecasted increase in whole-economy wages (5.6%). 

For PiS (The Law and Justice Party), any - real or apparent - ills that plague Polish society serve a pretext to increase the politicization of the economy. In 2013, that is before the PiS came to power, Poland was ahead of other OECD countries and the European Union in terms of state ownership. Recently, however, nothing has been done to reduce the interference of politicians in the economy. On the contrary, we are still seeing new steps towards further nationalization of enterprises. After the Bank Pekao S.A. and power plants, the time has come for the emergency medical services.

As in the case of the Act on the National Council of the Judiciary, the presidential draft law on the Supreme Court still contains unconstitutional solutions. Retirement of all judges of the Military Chamber and others at the age of 65 (unless the president extends the retirement age individually), likewise removal of the first president of the Supreme Court, despite her constitutional six-year tenure, or the establishment of the new Disciplinary Chamber, so autonomous that it can be considered a separate court - these are the most vivid cases of proposals incompatible with the Constitution. In fact, the president's draft - as far as the consequences go - does not differ much from that of the PiS deputies, vetoed by him in July 2017.

The presidential veto to the Law on the National Council of the Judiciary as prepared by Law and Justice and the submission of the president’s own project has ended the first wave of protests against the appropriation of justice by the ruling majority. The act passed last Friday contains a mechanism - no less dangerous, in fact identical - of unconstitutional selection of judges to the National Council of the Judiciary by the Parliament, and it benefits mainly the ruling party.

Government declares a good state of public finances but at the same time intensifies its search for new ways to drain the taxpayers’ pockets. The newest example is provided by the work currently in progress on lifting the upper limit on pension contributions. As a result, for earnings starting at about 6 thousand PLN net monthly, each additional zloty paid by the employer will be burdened with 52 groszes of taxes and premiums, and only 48 groszes will go to the employee.

Despite warnings, voiced for over a year by FOR and other organizations, the Parliament, with the votes of PiS (Law and Justice Party) and Kukiz '15, adopted Bill on Restrictions Related to Trade on Sundays, pushed through by "Solidarity," politically affiliated with PiS. The act comes into force on 1 March 2018. Until the end of 2018, the trade ban will not apply on the first and last Sunday of the month, from 2019 only on the last Sunday of the month, and in 2020 a total ban will be introduced.

Two years of the PiS’ (the Law and Justice party) government constituted an unprecedented attack on Polish institutions of the rule of law. In the economic sphere, the government acts in a way that increases what should fall - public debt, and decreases what should grow - the strength of the private sector. It places Poland on a dangerous turn of her history, and the economic prospects of our country start to look bleak, especially in the event of a downturn in the global economy.

Two years of the PiS’ (the Law and Justice party) government constituted an unprecedented attack on Polish institutions of the rule of law. In the economic sphere, the government acts in such a way that what should fall – increases, like the public debt, and what should grow – decreases, like the strength of the private sector. All this places Poland on a dangerous turn of her history, and the economic prospects of our country start to look bleak, especially in the event of a downturn in the global economy.