Poland – In a new landmark ruling issued on December 11, the Polish Constitutional Tribunal declared unconstitutional the financial penalties imposed on Poland by the EU for non-compliance with an interim measure ordered by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and for non-compliance with CJEU orders relating to the shape and functioning of Poland’s judicial system.

The two types of daily penalties retained by the European Commission on the EU funds allocated to Poland, due to that country’s persistent refusal to pay those penalties it considers unlawful, were referred to the Polish Constitutional Tribunal by Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro in November 2021.

This new ruling was issued by Poland’s constitutional court sitting in full court. It is in line with the same tribunal’s ruling of October 2021 that declared unconstitutional the CJEU’s interferences’ in the organization and functioning of the Polish judiciary in a way that goes beyond the powers conferred to the EU in the existing treaties. Logically, if such a power grab by the CJEU is judged incompatible with the Polish Constitution, financial penalties that rise from Poland’s refusal to comply must be ruled unconstitutional as well.

The October 2021 ruling was among the reasons given by the European Commission to withhold Next Generation EU funds for Poland, even though rulings by other constitutional courts that have declared decisions of the CJEU to be beyond its powers (ultra vires) and therefore not applicable in a given member state (like Germany, to cite but one) have not led to such measures.

The new ruling issued by the Polish court on December 11 this year is also in line with its earlier judgment regarding the single-judge interim decision made at the CJEU in 2021 that ordered Poland, without the case having been yet heard on the merits, to stop production at the Turów coal mine. The lignite extracted at that mine feeds in a power plant that provides some 6-8% of the country’s electricity.

Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal thus remains on a collision course with the European Commission and the CJEU, which have been engaged in a long-time effort to expand the EU’s competences through case law, in particular at the expense of the former countries of the Eastern Bloc, such as Poland, Hungary, and Romania, as they can be blackmailed with EU funds.