The legal dispute between the EU Commission and Poland is now moving again. Some reforms pushed through by the government in Warsaw will be rewarded with a halving of the one million euro fine imposed at the end of 2021. In the future, the Polish government will only have to pay 500,000 euros. But the dispute is far from over.
The ECJ justified its decision on Friday by saying that the country had taken the necessary measures – but they were not enough. The European Commission did Poland indicted over controversial judicial reforms. From a Brussels point of view, the independence of the judiciary was strengthened, among other things, by the establishment of a disciplinary body, which could punish and dismiss judges, whose members were appointed by the National Judicial Council, which in turn came under the control of politicians . The body is now abolished.
In October 2021, the ECJ deemed another penalty payment necessary by means of an interim measure because Poland has not implemented its July 2021 decision to suspend several regulations and the work of the Disciplinary Body. The court wanted to avoid “serious and irreparable damage to European values”, in particular the rule of law.
After the abolition of the Disciplinary Body, Poland requested that the periodic penalty payment be abolished because it had amended the law and thus fulfilled its obligations in full. However, the ECJ is of the opinion that the measures are not yet sufficient.
EU aid funds suspended
Among other things, the consequences of decisions of the Disciplinary Chamber are not suspended in all cases. The court announced that it would make a decision on the case on June 5. The July 2021 decision was only an interim measure. Incidentally, billions of EU aid funds are withheld because of the dispute over the rule of law in Poland.
Source: Krone
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