The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) confirmed on Monday that Poland refused to comply with EU rules on judicial independence and the rule of law, for which it had already been fined €500,000.
This Monday’s final judgment by the CJEU confirms previous decisions, including in the context of the action for non-compliance with Community rules submitted by the European Commission on 1 April (C-204/21), that Poland is in breach of the rules the rule of law, in particular as regards the independence of Supreme Court judges and citizens’ access to an independent court.
In October 2021, the EU Court had sentenced Warsaw to pay a fine of one million euros per day – later revised to 500 thousand euros – until it complies with the provisional measures of respect for the rule of law ordered in July of that year and until the “date of pronunciation of the last sentence”.
The European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, responded via his account on the social network Twitter, stating that “the rule of law is an integral part of the identity of the EU itself as a common legal order and is embodied in principles that set legally binding obligations that are binding on the Member States”.
Following the adoption by Poland on 20 December 2019 of a law amending national rules on the organization of common courts, administrative courts and the Supreme Court (amending law), the European Commission has brought an action for non-compliance and the CJEU requested that the regime introduced by this law violate several provisions of EU law, which was done this Monday.
Source: DN
