BRUSSELS, 15 FEB - New chapter in the tug of war on the rule of law between Brussels and Warsaw: the European Commission has decided to refer Poland to the EU Court of Justice for the violation of European law by the Polish Constitutional Court.
Berlaymont Palace had launched an infringement procedure in December 2021 which concerned two sentences of the Polish Constitutional Court in which some provisions of the EU treaties were considered incompatible with the Polish Constitution, expressly contesting the primacy of European law over national law.
With these sentences, the Polish Constitutional Court allegedly violated the general principles of autonomy, primacy, effectiveness, uniform application of EU law and the binding effect of the sentences of the Court of Justice of the EU.
The Community executive criticizes the Warsaw judges for violating the right to effective judicial protection and also believes that the Constitutional Court no longer satisfies the requirements of an independent and impartial tribunal.
Poland's referral to the EU Court of Justice is only the latest chapter in a long tug of war between Warsaw and Brussels on the rule of law and in particular on the independence and impartiality of Polish judges.
Poland's referral to the EU Court of Justice for questioning the primacy of European law over national law is a "planned attack on the Polish state".
Thus the Minister of Justice of Warsaw, Zbigniew Ziobro, at a press conference on the decision of the European Commission to refer Poland to the European Judge.
"This request and the blackmail, in this case, aim to eliminate the Polish state as we know it, according to the Polish constitution," said the minister, known for his anti-European and anti-German positions.
The Commission's decision, he added, is part of EU policy which follows "the German plan to abolish EU member states" in favor of "a centralized state with a formal capital in Brussels and a real one in Berlin". .