European Commission To Sue Poland Over Primacy of EU LawThis is part of Brussels’ purposeful “plan to disestablish EU member states,” and create a “centralized state” instead, Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro said.
Tamás Orbán
— February 16, 2023
Poland’s judicial system has been the subject of a long-standing disagreement over the rule of law between the European Union and the country’s national-conservative government, led by the Law and Justice Party (PiS). This week, the EU announced that it will sue Poland in the European Court of Justice (ECJ ) over two rulings made by the country’s Constitutional Tribunal in 2021, which challenged the primacy of EU law over national law.
In a statement issued on February 15th, the European Commission said that the two rulings by Poland’s constitutional tribunal “directly challenged the primacy of EU law and the provisions of the EU treaties.” The Commission also pointed out that, despite having had an ongoing dialogue with Poland since December 2021, “the Polish reply does not address the commission’s concerns,” leading to the decision to bring the matter to the EU’s supreme court, the ECJ.
The Commission also expressed concerns over the appointment procedures of three judges and the selection of the court’s president. The Commission believes these decisions by the Constitutional Tribunal are proof that it “no longer meets the requirements of an independent and impartial tribunal that was previously established by law.”
The rulings by the Constitutional Tribunal that prompted the EU’s decision relate to the compatibility of parts of the EU treaties with the Polish Constitution. The tribunal claimed that the EU treaties were subordinate to the constitution in the Polish legal system, a stance that challenges one of the basic principles of EU law. Poland’s ruling party, PiS, supported this position, with party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski stating that “all European regulations that are in force in Poland … must comply with the constitution.”
After the EC published its statement, the Polish Minister of Justice, Zbigniew Ziobro, called a press conference where he denounced the Commission’s actions as politically and ideologically motivated “threats” meant to undermine Polish democracy. According to the minister, the recent development is part of a purposeful “plan to disestablish the EU member states in their existing form,” in order to create a “centralized state with a formal capital in Brussels. He continued,“we do not and we will not consent to this.”
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Source:
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/european-commission-to-sue-poland-over-primacy-of-eu-law/