The Constitutional Court of Poland holds that Polish law takes precedence over European law, and that certain rulings by EU courts conflict with the Polish constitution.
The Polish court states that EU membership and signing treaties do not mean Poland surrenders its highest legal authority to the EU.
The court’s ruling was made at the request of Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki. The Polish conservative ruling party PiS (Law and Justice) condemns European influence over the Polish legal system. The European Court in Luxembourg has reprimanded Poland on this matter multiple times.
The Polish government and the European Union (EU) have been at odds for months over a Polish reorganization of the judiciary that would partly come under government control. In this matter, the EU is even threatening to halt all subsidies to the Polish government.
This has frozen the disbursement of tens of billions of euros, including funds for agricultural subsidies. Direct payments from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) are crucial for the Polish countryside. Approximately one-third of agricultural income comes from direct payments.
Yesterday afternoon’s ruling on the relationship between Polish and European law is, according to experts, 'a bomb under European law.' GreenLeft MEP Tineke Strik pointed out that the primacy of European law is the foundation on which the European Union was built.
“Without this rule, any country could evade any European agreement and there would be no mutual trust. The Polish government cannot expect to continue benefiting from European cooperation if it questions the European legal order,” Strik said in an initial response.
“As long as the Polish government maintains its collision course against European rule-of-law principles, the European Commission must do everything possible to block European subsidies to the country. It is important that the Commission sends a clear signal: those who tamper with the foundation of the EU can expect to be sidelined.”
The other 26 EU countries also have the option to strip the Polish government of voting rights in the European Council through an Article 7 procedure if it fails to respect core European values. Such an infringement procedure effectively amounts to suspending the voting rights of Polish ministers in EU meetings.