The European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, still gave a negative assessment of the situation of the Rule of law in Poland, on Thursday 23 March in the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, mentioning in particular the lack of action by the Polish authorities to comply with the various rulings of the Court of Justice of the EU or the European Court of Human Rights.
The Commissioner also deplored a blockage on the reform of the Supreme Court Disciplinary Chamber, which is intended in particular to unblock European recovery funds. This follows the decision of the Polish President, Andrzej Duda, to refer the matter to the Polish Constitutional Tribunal.
“Unfortunately, the situation in Poland continues to be of great concern”, he told MEPs.
Poland has, for example, still not allowed compliance “with the rulings of the Court of Justice of July 2021 on the regime applicable to Polish judges”, for which the country was fined €1 million per day at the end of 2021 (see EUROPE 12821/1).
Since then, the Commission has managed to recover some of the money through various programmes (€360 million), but “€500 million are still owed”, the Commissioner said.
Regarding the milestones the Commission had set for Poland to unlock the recovery plan and the reform adopted in Poland last January, which was supposed to settle the dispute, the Commissioner stressed that it will also be necessary to pay the fines and implement the interim measures of the Court of Justice of the EU.
“No payment will be made”, until the Commission is certain that these conditions (related to the Rule of law conditionality mechanism, judicial independence or the various Rule of law reports) are fulfilled, “but it is not known when the Constitutional Tribunal will make its decision”.
Once this opinion has been issued, the law will still have to enter into force, and only then will the Commission be able to say whether the criteria for the recovery plan have been met.
Furthermore, the Commissioner highlighted concerns about the functioning of the Supreme Audit Office or the independence of the National Council of the Judiciary, which is “a key issue”.
In particular, he is concerned about the powers of its president, who can question the verdict of other courts.
Asked about this and other issues by the Dutch Green MEP, Tineke Strik (Greens/EFA), to make more use of infringement procedures, the Commissioner said his institution was using all the levers at its disposal and opening procedures whenever necessary.
The Commissioner also noted that there are as many as 300 cases before the European Court of Human Rights concerning the independence of the judiciary in Poland. The country has also been criticised for not respecting the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, “which is unprecedented”, added the Commissioner. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)