The Polish Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday 7 October, in a long-awaited judgment on the principle of the primacy of European law, that Articles 1 and 19 of the EU Treaty respectively – establishing a contractual relationship between the Union and Poland and an ‘ever closer Union’ and establishing the role and composition of the Court of Justice of the EU – are not “compatible” with the Polish Constitution.
The Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, said that while it is “premature to go into details, of course we are concerned about this situation; it is European law that prevails and we have been reminding people of this for months”. He was reacting to the meeting of Justice Ministers that had taken place in Luxembourg and he asked for more time “to read this decision”, that he had only learned of during the meeting.
The EPP group in the European Parliament reacted to this decision as “Polexit”. “By declaring that the EU treaties are not compatible with Polish law, Poland’s illegitimate Constitutional Court has set the country along a road to Polexit”, said Dutch MEP Jeroen Lenaers.
For French MEP Fabienne Keller (Renew Europe), the Polish Constitutional Court, “which is composed of judges appointed by the ruling party”, has “taken a serious decision that calls into question the primacy of European law over the issue of the Rule of law. Poland is moving further and further away from European values”, she commented on Twitter.
According to an EPP source, Poland should now logically be deprived of recovery funds after taking such a decision and they should be subject to financial sanctions, since Article 7 of the Treaty has illustrated its limits due to the unanimity required to complete the process.
As for Member States, it was time on Thursday evening to analyse the decision before deciding on any possible next steps. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)