On Tuesday, in response to Brussels’ announcement of steps to implement the EU’s decision on the case, Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller said that Warsaw will clarify differences with the European Commission over the disciplinary system for Polish judges.
Mueller said in a post on the Twitter community website that the Polish government will analyze the documents sent by the European Commission. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said earlier that in a letter to Warsaw he requested clarification on the implementation of two rulings of the European Court of Justice last week on the work of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Polish Supreme Court. Vice-President of the European Commission, Vera Jourova, announced that the Brussels Commission has instructed Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders to take steps to implement the ruling.
In this regard, Ms Jourová intends to launch a new infringement procedure to impose a monetary fine on Warsaw if it does not confirm the full implementation of the ECJ ruling by 16 August.
In response, a Polish government spokesman confirmed in his tweet on Twitter: Poland, like other EU member states, considers it necessary to comply with the EU treaties, which directly determine which powers are transferred to the EU and which matters fall within The exclusive jurisdiction of the member states.
Warsaw regards the organization of justice as an internal matter of the European Union. Last Wednesday, the Polish Constitutional Court confirmed the primacy of Polish law over EU law in the organization of justice.
Muller also noted that legal solutions in Poland are similar to those used in other European countries. “We will enter into an appropriate dialogue with the European Commission to clarify differences of opinion on this issue,” he read in his post.
On the other hand, Poland’s Deputy Minister of Justice Sebastian Kalita argued that the dialogue had proven fruitless in recent years, and that the European Court of Justice “acted in bad faith”, violating the founding treaties and interfering with the Polish constitutional system.
“Further dialogue is justification for this action,” says Kalita’s Twitter post for one of the smaller ruling coalition parties, Solidarity Poland.
Boris Budka, deputy head of the main opposition party, Civic Tribune, summed up the situation on social media: The PiS-led government “has got a month to remove the so-called disciplinary chamber from the base from the law”, followed by a fine that could be imposed by the court. To be covered by the Polish taxpayer money.
Even before the ECJ’s announcement, Aleksander Stepkowski, a spokesman for the Polish Supreme Court, said the reaction to the ECJ ruling depends only on the members of the disciplinary chamber, and the chief justice is not competent under Polish law.
Nine members of the Warsaw High Court expressed a dissenting opinion on Tuesday, and said the EU’s decision should lead to an immediate suspension of the disciplinary chamber.
The Disciplinary Chamber, which was established in 2018 within the framework of Polish judicial reform, and which has been criticized by the European Court of Justice in several respects, mainly deals with violations of service ethics and the law committed by judicial personnel.
