Venice Commission returns to Poland to review new surveillance law

Representatives of the Venice Commission, the human rights body of the Council of Europe, will come to Poland on Thursday to analyze Poland’s newly amended surveillance law passed by the country's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party to assess whether it complies with Council of Europe standards.

The new law expands government access to digital data and allows for greater surveillance by police. Human rights group Amnesty International said the law is "a major blow to human rights".

Earlier this year Poland was taken to task by the Council of Europe's Venice Commission for the changes enacted to the operations of its Constitutional Tribunal.

In December the tribunal ruled on unconstitutionality of Constitutional Tribunal law amendment by governing party Law and Justice (PiS) and the government refused to publish that ruling saying it was made not in line with 


In March the Venice Commission also opined that the recent amendment to the Constitutional Tribunal law was unconstitutional and obstructs the functioning of the institution as well as violates basic values of democracy, rule of law, and human rights. 

In April European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans urged the Polish government to implement Constitutional Tribunal rulings.

Meanwhile on Wednesday, a Warsaw-based prosecutor's office declined to launch an investigation into the failure to publish the March 9 ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal on the grounds that it is not eligible to settle constitutional contentions.

The prosecutor's office created a new rule according to which the government has the right, and the obligation, to verify the legality of rulings of the Constitutional Tribunal, but did not base the rule of any legislative act. 

The case on whether or not to launch an investigation was conducted by three prosecutors, with the first one (who favored launching an investigation) being dismissed and the second one resigning on his own.

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