Poland filed a complaint against the European Union’s executive to the bloc’s top court to stop a daily fine of €1 million ($1.1 million) that’s at the center of the country’s dispute over sweeping changes in the judiciary.
(Bloomberg) — Poland filed a complaint against the European Union’s executive to the bloc’s top court to stop a daily fine of €1 million ($1.1 million) that’s at the center of the country’s dispute over sweeping changes in the judiciary.
The government in Warsaw believes that the penalty, which has grown to more than 400 million euros, should be withdrawn because it has complied with an order from the EU’s top court to dissolve a so-called disciplinary chamber for judges, European Affairs Minister Szymon Szynkowski vel Sek said.
The move marks a fresh escalation of tensions between Poland and the EU in the rule-of-law standoff. Separately, it also comes as disagreements within the ruling coalition are preventing the government from complying with a deal it has struck with Brussels that would pave the way for the release of €35.4 billion in post-pandemic aid.
“The Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court was liquidated, and the provisions that raised doubts of the European Commission and the CJEU ceased to apply,” Szynkowski, who confirmed the filing of the case against the commission, told Bloomberg on Friday. “Therefore, there are no grounds for imposing penalties by the Commission.”
Poland last month asked the commission to halt the fine as of July 15 after parliament adopted changes replacing the contested disciplinary mechanism with a new chamber. Poland’s lawsuit was first reported by the Dziennik Gazeta Prawna newspaper late Thursday.
The government has refused to pay the fine, which has been accruing since November of last year. In response, the European Commission has periodically docked the amount owed from payments Poland receives from the bloc’s budget.
Election Issue
The nationalist coalition is under pressure to put its conflict with the EU to rest as surging inflation eats into voter support, and rising borrowing costs limit the government’s leeway to boost welfare spending, its winning formula in the last two elections.
Opinion polls suggest that the ruling Law & Justice party may lose its grip on power in general elections expected in October next year. Yet the attempts to access billions of euros in EU funding, which remain out of Warsaw’s reach due to the rule-of-law dispute, have stalled over disagreements within the ruling alliance to meet benchmarks set under the deal agreed with the Commission.
The president has also raised the possibility of vetoing the legislation at the heart of that agreement. The law would reverse some of the most contested elements of the government’s court reforms, which the EU has said increases political sway over judges.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki will meet Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro on Friday to discuss the legislation, which the minister and his lawmakers want to oppose.
(Updates with details in second paragraph, ministers’ meeting in last.)
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