Venice Commission urges Polish president to swear in Sejm-elected TK judges
The Council of Europe's advisory body says President Karol Nawrocki should swear in Constitutional Tribunal judges elected by the Sejm without checking their election. It also allows the oath to be taken without the president if he refuses or delays.
Opinion adopted in Venice and published
The Venice Commission, an advisory body of the Council of Europe formally known as the European Commission for Democracy through Law, adopted its opinion at a plenary session in Venice on Friday, 9 October. The text was published on Tuesday, 13 October 2026. The Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) requested the opinion, which addresses the powers of the Polish president in receiving oaths from Constitutional Tribunal (TK) judges and in other appointments. The Council of Europe is an international organisation that works on human rights, democracy and the rule of law, and the commission was founded in 1990 and is based in Venice. The commission's central recommendation is that the president receive oaths from Sejm-elected judges without delay.
The Commission makes the following recommendations: ensuring that the relevant provisions regulating the taking of oaths by judges of the Constitutional Tribunal are applied in line with their statutory purpose, so that the President promptly receives oaths from judges elected by the Sejm, without claiming the right to verify the election procedure.
If the president refuses or delays, the opinion allows the oath to be taken without his physical presence, provided its essential elements are kept. These include taking the oath in the prescribed form, properly verifying that it was taken, and forwarding it to the president. The sources describe that form differently, as a written form in one report and a notarial act in another.
- Sejm elects six Constitutional Tribunal judges
- Venice Commission adopts opinion at plenary session in Venice
- Opinion published
Four of six judges still not sworn in
The dispute concerns six TK judges elected by the Sejm in March. President Karol Nawrocki swore in only Dariusz Szostek and Magdalena Bentkowska, and did not take the oath from the remaining four because procedural requirements were not met for them. Nawrocki argues that errors were made when those judges were chosen. The Chancellery of the President gave its reasons as doubts about the procedure by which the Sejm elected the judges, questions about which vacancies each judge was elected to fill and therefore the dates from which their terms run. It accepted the two judges elected on the same day as necessary to keep enough judges sitting to rule, and it gave itself more time to resolve the rest.
- Elected by Sejm
- 6 judges
- Oath taken before president
- 2 judges
- Oath not taken before president
- 4 judges
The four remaining judges took their oath in the Sejm and sent the written oath to the Chancellery of the President. The TK president, Bogdan Święczkowski, has not admitted them to their duties, citing the lack of information from the president that he accepted their oath. The ruling coalition and Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek hold that the president cannot selectively assess the Sejm's choice of judges.
Commission process and expert view
Before the opinion was issued, a Venice Commission delegation met online with representatives of both the Chancellery of the President and the judges. Presidential adviser and constitutional law professor Dariusz Dudek took part in the commission's proceedings, while Daniel Kędzierski from the secretariat of the Sejm Justice and Human Rights Committee represented the Sejm Chancellery. Former TK president Jerzy Stępień, speaking to Polskie Radio 24 before publication, predicted that the commission would find the president has no competence to assess a judge's election by the Sejm. He described the opinions in general terms.
These are not binding opinions, but they present the state of affairs in a very precise way, according to European standards.
Stępień also argued that a judge already elected by the Sejm can send the oath in a document to the president if the president does not perform the statutory duty, and that a notary's document is not even necessary. He expected the commission to note that the judge's obligation is to take the oath, while the president is essentially a passive participant in that process.
What remains open
Stępień described the Venice Commission opinions as non-binding. The articles do not report a response from the president's office to the published text. Four judges remain without admission to the Tribunal, and the sources do not say when the president will decide on the remaining oaths.
