In a decision on Monday 5 June, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) found that “the Polish judicial reform of December 2019 violates Union law”. This is a victory for the Commission, which has referred the case to the Court of Justice. But this decision is also a symbol of Poland’s inability to obtain independent and impartial justice from Poland. In recent years, Brussels has exerted both judicial and financial pressure on Warsaw to reverse its reform. Without success. The Luxembourg judges are therefore demanding that Mateusz Morawiecki’s government take over their copy.
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“The value of the rule of law is part of the identity of the Union,” they declare. Before proceeding, Member States are bound by “legally binding obligations” from which they “cannot escape on the basis of internal rules or case law, including constitutional ones”. It is clear that European law takes precedence over national law.
Since the conservative nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party came to power in 2015, the EU has been trying to bring Warsaw back to a more virtuous practice of the rule of law, particularly on judicial issues. Thus, on July 14, 2021, the ECJ requested the suspension of the activities of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Polish Supreme Court, the cornerstone of the system of control of judges subject to politics. Not only did Warsaw not comply, but on October 7, 2021, the Polish Constitutional Court, seized by Mr. Morawiecki himself, declared certain articles of the EU treaties incompatible with the constitution.
“An Important Day”
In this context, the Commission turned again to the Luxembourg judges and asked them to impose financial sanctions on Warsaw while the legislative process was completed. On October 27, 2021, they sentenced Poland to a fine of 1 million euros per day as long as the Disciplinary Chamber’s activities were not suspended. A few months later, on April 21, 2022, when Warsaw had taken the first steps towards goodwill, the ECJ reduced this amount to EUR 500,000 per day.
Between November 3, 2021 and June 5, Poland would have had to pay 556.5 million euros in this regard. Rejecting this, the community executive decided to fund itself directly from the cohesion funds it had reserved under the EU budget for the period 2021-2027. So far, they have already been reduced by 360 million euros.
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