The European Court handed Poland a huge fine

Poland has to pay a total of about 320 million euros as a penalty imposed by the European Court during the proceedings in the case of violation of rights, according to a press release from the Court of the European Union. The case goes back to the judicial reform of 2019.

As the Court of Justice of the European Union reminds, on April 1, 2021, the European Commission sued The EU is suing Poland for non-fulfillment of obligations, seeking recognition that some legislative changes concerning the organization of the Polish justice system adopted in December 2019 violate EU law.

In this dispute, the tribunal obliged Poland, in particular, to suspend the application of certain provisions of national legislation challenged by the European Commission. Since Poland did not comply with this measure, on October 27, 2021, it was ordered to pay the EC a daily fine of one million euros. This fine began to be levied on November 3, 2021. Over time, after the reforms, the fine was reduced to 500 thousand euros per day, starting from April 21, 2023.

Since Poland did not pay this fine, the European Commission began to collect it periodically, deducting it from EU payments. As a result, Poland filed a lawsuit in The General Court of the European Union, demanding the cancellation of a total of six compensation decisions covering the period from July 15, 2022 to June 4, 2023, that is, the period between the entry into force of the law of June 9, 2022 and the day preceding the decision of the European Court, concluding the proceedings in this case. The total amount of funds returned in this way is about 320.2 million euros.

"The Commission has not violated EU law by proceeding to collect the amounts due. The Court, in particular, noted that neither the case law of the Constitutional Court of Poland nor the entry into force of the law of June 9, 2022 allow to question the very existence of the debt. Therefore, they cannot affect the legality of the decision on netting," the EU Court says.