On November 23, 2026, the hearing of the applications concerning the judicial reorganization in , a move that comes to confirm, according to many observers, the ongoing “crisis of the rule of law” in the country.
Human Rights Watch granted the Polish government an extension, calling for “rapid action” to fix “systemic problems” in the judiciary.
More than 1,100 pending cases against Poland, all related to the judicial reform launched in 2017, are in the hands of the ECtHR. Of these, around 900 have been postponed – and now extended again – based on the landmark pilot decision in Wałęsa v Poland (November 2023).
In that decision, the Court had already found violations of fundamental principles, such as the independence of the judiciary and the separation of powers, stressing that these violations stem from “dysfunction of national legislation and practice.”
The Strasbourg Court emphatically underlines that the primary, systemic problem remains the flawed process of judicial appointments through the reconstituted National Council of Justice (NCJ). This process “inherently and continuously impairs the independence of appointed judges.”
Another concern is that the law passed in July 2024, aimed at restoring the right of judges to elect the members of the National Assembly and limiting the interference of the executive branch, has not yet been enacted.
The Warsaw commitments and the difficult reform
The Polish government requested the new extension, citing the “massive scale of reforms” required. Among the measures announced is the “Draft Law on the Restoration of the Right to an Independent and Impartial Court”, which regulates the effects of the decisions of the ECHR from 2018 to 2025.
The ECtHR, although it accepted the request for an extension, notes that the implementation of the pilot decision is closely supervised by the Committee of Ministers.
In the meantime, the Court makes clear that it will continue to consider cases that raise different issues related to the independence of the judiciary, beyond the central systemic problem.
