The Polish government’s planned law allowing judges to be fired if they criticise the government’s judiciary reforms could “lead straight to Poland’s exiting the European Union,” the country’s Supreme Court said on December 17.

The statement marks a new crisis in the Polish government’s already very strained relationship with the country’s judges. Since taking over power in 2015, the right-wing populists from Law and Justice (PiS) have been trying to establish political control over the courts. 

PiS had to backtrack on some changes following verdicts of the Court of Justice of the EU but the draft law lambasted by the Polish Supreme Court shows it has not given up.

The draft law explicitly forbids judges’ self-governing bodies from taking up positions on political matters and issuing resolutions “expressing hostility towards other authorities of the Republic of Poland and its constitutional bodies as well as criticising the fundamental principles of the political system of the Republic of Poland.”

The Supreme Court argues that such restrictions could bar judges from asking the EU courts questions about the government reforms’ alignment with the bloc’s law.

“Courts in EU member states must not be barred from accessing the Court of Justice of the European Union. Such a provision would lead directly to Poland exiting the European Union,” the Supreme Court said.

In a separate statement analysing the draft law in question, the Supreme Court also said that, once passed, the law could allow President Andrzej Duda to replace the current president of the Supreme Court with a judge of his choice. 

That, in turn, could lead to subjecting the State Tribunal — the body that rules on constitutional liability of persons in the highest positions in the state — to political control. The president of the Supreme Court is also the head of the State Tribunal.

The EU said on Monday it would take a close look at the proposed draft because it has “a very clear position” on matters of judicial independence, a European Commission spokesman on the rule of law said.

Some EU member states are pushing for the rule of law to become a criterion to meet to be eligible for EU funding in the bloc’s next budget for years 2021-2027. Poland is keen to max out payments from the budget as well as from a separate pool of money known as the Just Transition Mechanism that will be set up to ease the transition to a climate-neutral economy in coal regions.