WARSAW: The European Union’s top court on Wednesday upheld an EU fine on Poland over judicial reforms by its previous conservative government, a decision the current authorities vowed to appeal.
During the eight years of rule by the Law and Justice party (PiS) to December 2023, Polish authorities engaged in a bitter feud with the EU over a judicial overhaul that Brussels saw as undermining the rule of law in the country.
In 2021, the bloc’s European Court of Justice (ECJ) ordered Poland to pay one million euros a day for not suspending its Supreme Court disciplinary chamber, which had power over the country’s judges.
The PiS government refused to pay the fine, forcing the European Commission — the bloc’s executive arm — to recover the amount by deducting it from EU funds earmarked for Poland.
On Wednesday, the EU court confirmed in a statement that “Poland must pay a total amount of approximately 320,200,000 euros ($334 million) in respect of the penalty payment”. Poland had tried to challenge the fine, arguing it had abolished the contested disciplinary mechanism in July 2022.
The court said in June 2023 that the daily fines would stop but that Poland would have to pay what was still due.
Poland had sought to slash the fine for the period after it axed the chamber.
The court rejected its claim on Wednesday, saying in its ruling that it had reduced the fines from April 2023 but that was effective “only with regard to the future”.
Poland said it would lodge an appeal against the decision. “Despite the fact that this is the sole responsibility of Law and Justice, we will appeal this decision,” Polish EU affairs minister Adam Szlapka told reporters.
“We want to use every legal possibility to recover the money for Poland,” Szlapka added.
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