The Vice-President of the Court of Justice of the European Union decided on Friday 21 April to reduce the daily penalty payment that Poland has had to pay to the EU budget since 3 November 2021 (see EUROPE 12821/1) from €1 million to €500,000 because it has not fully complied with the Court’s judgment that required it, among other things, to stop the activities of the disciplinary chamber of Polish judges in the country’s Supreme Court (case C-204/21) (see EUROPE 12762/23).
In his order, the Vice-President identified several measures justifying the reduction of the periodic penalty payment. Poland has abolished the disciplinary chamber. The legal remedies that are available to judges who have been the subject of decisions taken by the disciplinary chamber have been strengthened. It is also easier to verify compliance with the requirements for the existence of independent, impartial and legally established courts in Poland.
Nevertheless, in the judge’s opinion, these measures are not sufficient to put an end to the obligation to pay penalty payments. He observed that the effects of decisions adopted by the disciplinary chamber authorising the initiation of criminal proceedings against a judge or their arrest were not immediately suspended. Poland has not demonstrated that it has terminated the provisions prohibiting verification of compliance with the Union’s requirements for an independent and impartial General Court that were previously established by law, nor those allowing disciplinary proceedings against a judge who has carried out such verification.
The dispute over the Polish judiciary’s independence from political power continues to block the disbursement of the first instalments of the Polish recovery plan under the Next Generation EU recovery plan.
The Court will deliver a judgment on the merits of the case on 5 June. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)