The Luxembourg Court Place Warsaw under a penalty of one million euros a day as long as it does not comply with a ruling calling for the suspension of a disciplinary body challenged by the Polish judiciary.
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Among the European institutions and the Polish national conservative government, the war of words now succeeded shock sanctions. At the request of the European Commission, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has decided to apply, in a judgment delivered Wednesday, October 27, a fine of one million euros a day against Warsaw, as the government does will not comply with a ruling by the same court on 14 July.
It stated that the majority of the PiS (Law and Justice) was to “immediately suspend” the operation of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court, one of the key elements of its “reforms” controversial justice, perceived by judiciary as a political instrument of control. Despite repeated announcements of his removal, the operation of this room has been partially suspended. “The implementation of agreed interim measures July 14 is essential to avoid serious and irreversible damage to the European legal order and the values on which the Union is based”, has justified the ECJ.
This decision comes at a time when tensions between Warsaw and Brussels are deeply intensified in recent weeks, since the political earthquake caused, October 7, in the judgment of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal, a different institution of the Supreme Court judicial and closely controlled by the government, which has called into question the primacy of European law over national law. Attempting to justify this decision before the European Parliament on Tuesday 19 October, the Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, found itself for almost four hours under the fire of harsh criticism by MEPs and engaged in exchanges with the tense President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
“World war III”
However, Poland has avoided open remonstrance at the European Council of 21 and 22 October as Germany, and to a lesser extent France, were keen to cut corners and favor the dialogue option. The European Commission has nonetheless made clear in Warsaw it blocked at this stage the funds of the European recovery plan post-Covid-19 due to Poland – about 36 billion euros – as its key assumptions in respecting the rule of law will not be respected
in response, Mr. Morawiecki decided to play the rhetorical escalation. In an interview Monday, October 25 at the Financial Times, the head of Polish government has accused the European Commission of financial blackmail and “put a gun to the head of Poland”. “What will happen if the European Commission initiates WWIII? If that’s the case, we will defend our rights with all the weapons at our disposal,” he blasted, including threatening to brandish a veto on the forthcoming European climate package. “We’ll have that money sooner or later, has he said. Later we will have, the more it will be the proof that there is a treatment and discrimination as an approach dictates from the Commission European. “
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