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A banner reading Konsytucja (Constitution) hangs at the main entrance of the Supreme Court in Warsaw
Photo: Natalie Skrzypczak/ DPA
Relations between Warsaw and Brussels have been strained for a long time.
The European Commission has criticized a judicial reform by the Polish government as anti-democratic.
Now the Commission followed up with action - and has sued Poland for violations of EU law.
The reason for this are rulings by the Polish Constitutional Court from 2021, with which provisions of the EU treaties were declared incompatible with the Polish constitution.
The EU Commission declared that the court had violated general principles of Union law in relation to the announced complaint before the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
These included the autonomy, primacy and uniform application of Union law and the binding effect of judgments of the European Court of Justice.
The Commission has other points of criticism.
She is of the opinion that »the Constitutional Court no longer fulfills the requirements of an independent and impartial court previously established by law«.
This was due to the irregularities in the appointment procedures for three judges in December 2015 and in the selection of its President in December 2016.
»The Commission is finally tackling one of the two remaining main problems of the rule of law crisis in Poland.
The constitutional court has not been independent for a long time, but is an extended arm of the PiS government," said Katarina Barley (SPD), Vice President of the EU Parliament and ex-Federal Minister of Justice, the SPIEGEL.
»The lawsuit once again illustrates the ailing state of the Polish rule of law.
It's good that the EU is finally taking action against those who violate the rule of law.«
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The conflict between the EU Commission and the national-conservative government of Poland led by the Law and Justice party (PiS), which has been smoldering for years, is thus escalating further.
Last October, the Commission stopped paying almost all structural funding to Warsaw – a step that had never been seen before.
The Commission had previously frozen funds from the Corona reconstruction fund, also because of problems with Poland's rule of law.
The government in Warsaw was unimpressed by the announcement from Brussels.
"Poland knows the arguments of the EU Commission, but does not share their view," said the Polish Minister for EU Affairs, Szymon Szynkowski vel Sek. Poland consistently points out that constitutional jurisprudence is exclusively a matter for the member states.
The constitutional courts in Germany and Spain, for example, have pointed this out in their case law.
As the guardian of the EU treaties, the Commission is responsible for monitoring that countries comply with EU law.
She repeatedly sues Germany before the ECJ to enforce compliance with EU law.
mrc/mbe/dpa
