The EU Court of Justice decided on Friday to reduce from €1 million to €500,000 the daily penalty imposed on Poland since November 2021 over grievances about the lack of independence of its judiciary.
The CJEU had ordered Poland, on 14 July 2021, to immediately cease the activities of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court, a key institution in a controversial reform of the Polish judicial system. After Poland refused to comply, the court ordered it to pay a daily penalty of €1 million from 3 November 2021.
The CJEU’s vice-president, hearing an appeal from Warsaw against the decision, noted on Friday that Poland had repealed the provisions conferring on the Disciplinary Chamber certain competences with regard to the status of judges and that the chamber has been abolished.
He also stressed that various measures adopted by Poland have had the effect of strengthening the legal remedies available to judges who have been the subject of decisions of the Disciplinary Chamber.
The judge considered, however, that the measures adopted by Poland were not sufficient to completely abolish the fine.
He noted that “the effects of decisions adopted by the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court authorising the initiation of criminal proceedings against a judge or his or her arrest have not, in any event, been immediately suspended.”
The judge added that Poland had not shown that it had completely and effectively suspended provisions prohibiting its courts from verifying compliance with EU requirements relating to an independent and impartial tribunal previously established by law, nor those allowing disciplinary proceedings against a judge who has carried out such a verification.
The Court is due to issue a ruling on the merits of the case on 5 June 2023, it said.
Warsaw has been at loggerheads with Brussels for several years over judicial reforms initiated by the ruling Conservative Nationalist Party (PiS) that are accused of undermining the independence of judges.
Tensions escalated on 7 October 2021, when Poland’s constitutional court, referred by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, challenged the supremacy of EU law, ruling certain articles of the EU treaties “incompatible” with the country’s constitution.
The issue of the independence of the Polish judiciary has so far prevented the country from accessing EU funds for its €35 billion stimulus package.
