When will NBP President Adam Glapiński appear before the State Tribunal? KO politician reveals important date

The commencement of work by the Sejm's Constitutional Accountability Committee (ODK) on the preliminary motion to bring the President of the National Bank of Poland, Adam Glapiński, before the State Tribunal is scheduled for September.

When asked about the time the committee would need to complete work on the application, the head of the ODK committee, Zdzisław Gawlik, said he was unable to say, but such proceedings could take a long time.

– As the legislator assumed, the principle of discontinuation does not apply here, which means that such proceedings can last a long time. Maybe here (when it comes to the work of the ODK commission – ed.), I assume in my head that it should be finished in a year – he said. – We will finish the work, the Sejm will decide what to do next – added Gawlik.

Preliminary a motion to bring the head of the NBP before the Supreme Court was filed by 191 members of parliament from the ruling coalition. Adam Glapiński was accused of violating the constitution and laws, including by indirectly financing budget deficit as part of the asset purchases in 2020-2021, conducting this purchase without “due authorization” from the Monetary Policy Council and by failing to comply with the order of the NBP President to remain apolitical. In the opinion of the NBP Management Board members, this motion is an attempt to violate the independence of the Polish central bank.

Application for TS for the President of the National Bank of Poland, Speaker of the Sejm Szymon Holownia referred for processing by the ODK commission at the end of May.

Already in March this year, the group PiS MPs filed a motion with the Constitutional Tribunal challenging four provisions of the Act on the State Tribunal and one of the regulations of the Sejm's regulations. Its essence, as indicated in the justification, comes down to the fact of “entrusting the preparation of the indictment of the President of the NBP before the Constitutional Tribunal, i.e. bringing the President of the NBP to constitutional accountability, to the Constitutional Accountability Commission of the Sejm, i.e. a political body par excellence”.

Gawlik emphasized that he was not commenting on the Constitutional Tribunal or on a possible decision of the Constitutional Tribunal regarding the work of the commission. He assured that regardless of the decision made in the Constitutional Tribunal, he would “act in accordance with the law.”

On Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. the case will be considered by a panel of five Constitutional Tribunal judges, led by the President of the Tribunal Julia Przyłębska. The rapporteur for the case will be judge Christina Pawlowiczand the panel will also include judges: Zbigniew Jędrzejewski, Bartłomiej Sochański and Bogdan Święczkowski.

Read also: Glapiński before the State Tribunal? “He was effectively notified”

In this case, in mid-April, the Constitutional Tribunal – at the request of the applicant deputies – issued a security order ordering the Speaker of the Sejm, the vice-speakers and the Sejm's constitutional responsibility committee to refrain from any actions related to the initial application for the Constitutional Tribunal for Adam Glapiński. In response to this decision, the Speaker Sejm member Szymon Hołownia declared that he would not execute the Constitutional Tribunal's decisionand the application for TS for the head of the NBP will be processed in the Sejm in accordance with the law.

Tuesday's hearing will be the second case before the Constitutional Tribunal this year concerning the constitutional liability of the NBP president. January 11 The Constitutional Tribunal ruled that it was unconstitutional for the Sejm to vote on the motion to bring the President of the National Bank of Poland before the Constitutional Tribunal. means automatic suspension from his official duties.

At that time, the Constitutional Tribunal also ruled that the principle that an absolute majority of votes in the presence of at least half of the statutory number of MPs is sufficient to bring the president of the central bank before the Constitutional Tribunal is unconstitutional. The Constitutional Tribunal ruled that it is unconstitutional that the group of people to whom a qualified majority applies – 3/5 of the statutory number of MPs when voting on a motion to bring the president before the Constitutional Tribunal – does not include the president of the NBP.

However, as noted in the justification of the second motion of PiS MPs, to be considered on 20 August, “the procedure for handling the initial motion to hold the President of the NBP constitutionally liable, as currently set out in the Act on the State Tribunal and the Sejm's regulations, undoubtedly provides the government and parliamentary majority with “the possibility of actually influencing the functioning of the NBP after submitting the initial motion”.

“Therefore, it is not permissible for a situation where, as a result of the legislator's efforts, one of the authorities, or more precisely, a legislative or executive authority, would play a key role in the procedure of holding the NBP president constitutionally liable. This would mean that a specific authority – in the current legal state, it is the Sejm, which both in pleno and in Sejm committees representing, in principle, the same parliamentary and government majority – gains too much influence on the stability of the NBP president's term of office,” reads the justification for the motion by PiS MPs.

At the same time, as noted in this justification, the constitution does not speak “about the body competent to hold the NBP president accountable”and it does not directly regulate any aspects of the procedure for holding the President of the NBP constitutionally liable.”

Therefore, as it was emphasized, “this motion is limited to questioning the constitutionality of conducting proceedings against the President of the National Bank of Poland before the Constitutional Accountability Committee of the Sejm”.