Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal Clashes With EU Court

Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal said the EU’s top court has no authority to impose an injunction on its legal reforms.

The EU court in 2020, had ordered Poland to suspend a new judicial disciplinary chamber, citing political reasons. The EU court repeated its appeal for Poland to obey in a statement by its vice-president on Wednesday (14 July). And its final ruling in the disciplinary chamber case could come as early as Thursday, EUobserver.comm reports.

But Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal said on Wednesday, that Poland can ignore EU court orders in this case because they were incompatible with the Polish constitution.

“With the best will to interpret the constitution, it is impossible to find in it the powers of the [EU] Court of Justice to suspend Polish laws concerning the system of Polish courts,” Constitutional Tribunal judge Bartlomiej Sochanski said.

The Constitutional Tribunal is also deliberating whether EU law or Polish law has primacy in the country more broadly speaking. EUobserver reports. The wider case, initiated by Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki, was due to be finalised earlier this week. But the verdict is now expected to fall any time between Thursday and 3 August, according to court documents seen by Reuters.