The European Commission informed the Polish authorities on Monday 7 February that it would be withholding around €15 million from the EU budget allocated to Poland because of Warsaw’s refusal to pay the €500,000 daily penalty payment that the EU Court of Justice (CJEU) imposed on Poland in September 2021 for failing to cease operations at the Turów coal mine (see EUROPE 12794/1).
“The offsetting is for penalties covering the period 20 September to 19 October 2021” and will be applied “after 10 working days from this notification”, Balazs Ujvari, the EU’s budget spokesperson, said on Tuesday 8 February. “When performing offsetting, the Commission fulfils its legal obligation to collect financial penalties imposed by the Court” and “follows the rules set out in the Financial Regulation, in the absence of payment by the Member State”, he added.
The notification came on the day of Polish President Andrzej Duda’s visit to Brussels for talks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the situation in Ukraine and respect for the Rule of law in Poland.
Since last October, Poland has also been subject to a daily penalty payment of €1 million for failing to put an end to the activities of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Polish Supreme Court, which the CJEU has ruled to be illegal (see EUROPE 12821/1 and 12866/23). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)