Poland has lost a legal battle in the EU Court, with the General Court ruling that the country must pay a total of approximately €320.2 million in fines related to its 2019 judicial reforms.
The EU Court’s ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by the European Commission on April 1, 2021, accusing Poland of failing to meet its obligations regarding changes made to the judicial system in December 2019. The Commission argued that these legislative changes violated EU law.
During the proceedings, the EU Court had instructed Poland to suspend the implementation of specific national provisions that the Commission had challenged. However, Poland did not comply with the interim order, which led the EU Court to impose a daily fine of €1 million starting on November 3, 2021.
In an attempt to meet the court’s demands, Poland passed the necessary legislation on June 9, 2022. The EU Court ruled on April 21, 2023, that this change mostly fulfilled the court’s interim measures, reducing the daily fine to €500,000.
Despite this, Poland did not pay the fines, resulting in periodic deductions from Poland’s EU payments by the European Commission.
In response, Poland filed a lawsuit in the General Court of the EU seeking the annulment of six decisions regarding these deductions, which were applied between July 15, 2022, and June 4, 2023, amounting to approximately €320.2 million.
However, the General Court rejected Poland’s lawsuit, affirming that the European Commission’s actions were in compliance with EU law.
