EU takes legal action against Poland over rule of law case | European Union News

The EU has launched lawsuits against Poland for rejecting the bloc’s law and undermining judicial independence, leading to a sharp rebuke from Warsaw.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Wednesday that the EU decision reflected a trend towards “bureaucratic centralism” in Brussels, “which must be stopped”.

The step increases the length of the route feud Poland has seen a setback between Warsaw and Brussels in the face of EU democratic rules.

Brussels has already refused to accept the recovery of coronaviruses funds For the case of Poland.

EU Economic Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said on Wednesday that the infringement proceedings were aimed at Poland for violating the rule of law and ruling that some articles of EU treaties were incompatible with Polish law.

An attack on sovereignty

Polish Deputy Justice Minister Sebastian Kaleta called the EU’s announcement an “attack on the Polish Constitution and our sovereignty.”

Former Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, a member of the Polish Law and Justice (PiS) MEP, said: “This is no longer a legal issue, it is an attack on the Polish constitution and the foundations of Polish statute.”

Morawiecki said he “deeply” disagreed with the European Commission’s move, adding that he did not understand the distinction between the EU and national powers.

Morawiecki said the legislation showed that “… a trend of bureaucratic centralism is unfortunately moving forward in Brussels, but it must be stopped.”

“More and more EU member states are seeing a limit on their powers: what the European Union can decide and what the Polish state can decide,” he said.

Wojciech Przybylski, editor-in-chief of Visegrad Insight magazine, has told Al Jazeera from Warsaw that there is no way out. impasse now.

“To get out of the blockade, which is currently leading to the suspension of EU funds for Poland, the Polish government should change the judicial law and give greater independence to the judicial system, but parts of the government are blocking that,” he said.

“And there is no way the EU can comment on this issue.”

An ongoing challenge

Judicial proceedings in Brussels were expected to address the ongoing challenge for the Polish Constitutional Court to the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

The ECJ has already ruled against Poland for imposing a mechanism to abolish the immunity of judges in the Constitutional Court and to remove those that are not considered acceptable by the parliament dominated by the Law and Justice Party.

The European Commission is also upset that a 2019 Polish law prevents Polish courts from applying EU law in certain areas and prevents them from sending legal questions to the EBJ.

Gentiloni said in a press conference that the Polish movements “violated the autonomy, priority, efficiency and uniform application of Union law and the binding judgments of the Court of Justice.”

The European Commission considers that the Polish Constitutional Court “no longer meets the requirements of an independent and impartial tribunal established by law”, as required by a basic EU treaty.

Poland said it was two months away from responding to a formal letter outlining the reasons for the infringement procedure.

Failure to receive a proper response may result in referral to the EBJ.

Although there is no possibility of Poland being expelled from the EU for non-compliance with the law of the bloc, they can be fined daily for non-compliance.

But Poland and Hungary – accused of weakening democratic rules by another EU member – have a pact that protects each other from tougher EU sanctions, such as the removal of the right to vote on the bloc.

Hungary also has delays in receiving money to recover EU coronaviruses because it does not meet EU regulations.

Both countries have threatened to block EU business as revenge for Brussels’ actions.

Gentiloni said he was “confident” that the conflict with Warsaw and Budapest would not escalate into a “tit for tat” cycle, but warned that “we cannot ignore anything”.