The European Union stepped up its rule-of-law fight with member state Poland on Monday when the bloc’s highest court confirmed that Warsaw had refused to comply with EU rules on judicial independence for which it has already lost over half a billion euros in fines.The European Court of Justice ruled on Monday that Poland’s 2019 justice reform infringed EU law after the European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch, claimed that the Polish Supreme Court lacked the necessary independence and impartiality.
“By today’s judgment, the Court upholds the Commission’s action,” a court statement said.
It added “the value of the rule of law is an integral part of the very identity of the European Union as a common legal order and is given concrete expression in principles containing legally binding obligations for the Member States.”
It said Poland did not meet these obligations.
Amid a plethora of condemnation and criticism, the court said “the measures thus adopted by the Polish legislature are incompatible with the guarantees of access to an independent and impartial tribunal.”
The Polish law requires judges to divulge membership of an association or party and allows that information to be made public.
The ECJ ruling said the provisions were “liable to expose judges to risks of undue stigmatization.”
The disagreement over the functioning of the Supreme Court is only one of several disputes that the right-wing government in Warsaw has with the EU institutions.