The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has told the EU Commission in the dispute over the Polish Judicial reform was justified. The Luxembourg judges said that the Polish Constitutional Court violated EU law with two rulings from 2021. The court in Warsaw was under the national conservative government at the time PiS-Party questioned the primacy of EU law over national jurisprudence.
The background to the case is two rulings by the Polish Constitutional Court from 2021. At that time, it refused to recognize decisions by Europe’s highest court as binding because, in its view, they violated the Polish constitution. The EU Commission Poland therefore had to face it ECJ sued.
The judges in Luxembourg ruled that Poland had violated fundamental principles such as the primacy, autonomy and uniform application of EU law by ignoring ECJ case law. According to the ECJ, Poland “called into question the essential features of the EU legal order” with the 2021 rulings. National courts would have to apply EU law and could not decide for themselves to what extent they should do so.
The ECJ made it clear that Poland could not rely on its constitutional identity to evade common EU values such as the rule of law, effective legal protection and judicial independence. These values are legally binding for all member states of the European Union.
According to the ECJ, the Constitutional Court is still not independent
Under the PiS government, the country’s justice system was significantly restructured. In particular, the introduction of a disciplinary chamber for judges undermined the separation of powers, according to the EU Commission. The EU
therefore initiated infringement proceedings in December 2021. The current Polish government under Prime Minister Donald Tusk fully acknowledged the violations and has been trying for two years to reverse the previous government’s reforms. However, Polish presidents close to PiS have repeatedly undermined these efforts through their veto power – firstly Andrzej Duda, and since this summer Karol Nawrocki.
The ECJ also ruled that the Polish Constitutional Court was still not independent. It does not meet the requirements of an independent and impartial court established by law within the meaning of EU law. The judges referred to the appointment of three constitutional judges in December 2015 and the court president in December 2016, in which the basic rules for appointment procedures were violated.
