European Court of Justice: Poland has to pay one million euros a day in penalties

Luxenbourg - The European Court of Justice (ECJ) sentenced Poland on Wednesday to pay a fine of one million euros per day. "Poland has failed to suspend the application of the national rules, particularly those relating to the powers of the disciplinary body of the Supreme Court," said the ECJ's explanatory memorandum.

The background to this is the conflict over the order to stop the work of the disciplinary body to punish judges in the country. The financial sanctions that have now been imposed are to remain in place until the Eastern European country follows the orders of the EU.

Since the EU Commission had come to the conclusion that the Polish government had not fulfilled its obligations from previous orders, it applied for Poland to be sentenced to pay a fine on September 7th. This should be "an amount" that is suitable to induce the Member State to implement the measures ordered in the interim measure as soon as possible," the Court said.

Poland's Minister of Justice accuses the ECJ of disregarding the constitution
The fine was imposed to "avert serious and irreparable damage to the legal order of the European Union and the values ​​on which this Union is based, in particular the rule of law," the court explained in its decision.

The Polish Deputy Minister of Justice Sebastian Kaleta (Solidarity Poland) accused the ECJ of “completely disregarding and ignoring” the Polish constitution and the judgments of the Polish constitutional court. The authority is exceeding its powers and abusing the instrument of fines. "This is another stage in the plan to deprive Poland of its influence on the system of our state, it is usurpation and blackmail," wrote Kaleta on Twitter.

Source: Junge Freiheit