The European Commission has taken legal action against Poland over rulings from the country's constitutional court that challenged the supremacy of EU law, in an escalation of the long-running battle between Brussels and Warsaw.
The EU executive said it had serious concerns about the Polish constitution and its recent case law, and that the court had challenged the primacy of EU law.
In July of this year, Poland s constitutional tribunal ruled that measures imposed by the European court of justice were unconstitutional, with warnings from a legal Polexit Poland agreed on the supremacy of EU law when it became a member of the bloc in 2004, but the rightwing nationalist Law and Justice Pis government that came to power in 2015 has tried to challenge that principle while bringing domestic courts under political control.
The EU s legal action was in response to the ruling from July and a similar one from October. It follows years of legal wrangling over the independence of Polish courts. In a sign that patience is wearing thin in Brussels, the EU commissioner for justice Didier Reynders said: "We tried to engage in a dialogue but the situation is not improving." The primacy of EU law must be respected, as does the EU's legal order. The commission said that it had serious doubts about the independence and impartiality of the Polish constitutional tribunal, a body that now includes former PiS MPs on its bench. Since its membership was overhauled, retired judges of the tribunal have said that the court has ceased to perform its constitutional duties.
Poland s government claimed that the legal action was an attack on its sovereignty. The EC is attempting to subordinate the constitutional tribunal in Poland to EU law, the deputy justice minister Sebastian Kaleta wrote on Twitter. This is an attack on the Polish constitution and our sovereignty. Beata Szyd o, who was Poland's prime minister from 2015 to 2017 and is now an MEP, tweeted: This is not a legal dispute but an attack on the Polish constitution and the foundations of Polish statehood. The EC wants to deprive Poland of its rights as a sovereign state. Legal scholars said the action was important but overdue. It's great that this is happening and there is no way the commission could keep its credibility in the rule of law field by letting the adventures of the Polish constitutional tribunal slide, wrote Jakub Jaraczewski, researcher at Democracy Reporting International.
Poland s government has two months to respond to the commission's letter of formal notice. The case could go to the European court of justice, leading to daily fines against Warsaw.
It is only the latest in a blizzard of legal cases against Poland, which was launched by the commission, which has also frozen access to Warsaw's access to €35.6 bn 30.2 bn in coronaviruses recovery funds because of concerns about the absence of independent courts.