In an order handed down on Wednesday 5 June (Joined Cases T-530/22 to T-533/22), the General Court of the European Union dismissed appeals against measures relating to the independence of the judiciary contained in Poland’s post-Covid-19 recovery plan.
Three associations and a foundation representing judges at European level believe that certain reforms included in Poland’s post-Covid-19 recovery plan are not compatible with EU law. In particular, they consider the measure relating to the independence of judges, which calls on Poland to allow a review of the decisions of the disciplinary chamber of the national Supreme Court for the benefit of the judges affected (case C-791/19 - see EUROPE 12763/7), to be too flexible. Convinced that Poland might not comply with the case law of the CJEU, they are asking the General Court to annul the decision of the Council of the European Union approving the Polish recovery plan from June 2022.
In its judgment, the General Court dismissed the actions as inadmissible. According to it, the applicant organisations are not entitled to act either on their own behalf or on behalf of the judges whose interests they are defending, since no legal provision relating to the ‘Recovery and Resilience Facility’ (2021/241), the budgetary instrument financing national recovery plans, gives them this procedural power.
The European Court emphasised that its decision had no bearing on Poland’s obligation to remedy as quickly as possible the infringements identified by the Court with regard to the crisis in the rule of law in Poland (case C-204/21 see EUROPE 13194/13).
Further information on this case: https://aeur.eu/f/cjd (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)