European judges bodies seek to keep Poland’s EU funds blocked

Europe’s largest judges’ organisations have issued a legal challenge against the Council of the EU’s decision to provisionally approve billions of euros in post-pandemic recovery funds for Poland.

The four bodies – the European Association of Judges, the Association of European Administrative Judges, Rechters voor Rechters and Magistrats Européens pour la Démocratie et les Libertés – argue that the milestones agreed with Poland to unlock the funds “fall short of what is required to ensure effective protection of the independence of judges and the judiciary”.

The aim of their lawsuit, which was sent to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on Sunday, is “to prevent a decision to unblock EU funds for Poland until CJEU judgements [against Poland’s judicial reforms] are fully and completely enforced”, said the organisations in a statement.

The European Commission long refused to approve Poland’s plans for spending its €36 billion in Covid recovery funds due to concerns over the rule of law, in particular the newly created disciplinary system for judges.

Following long negotiations, in May the Polish government announced that the two sides had agreed a series of “milestones” Poland needed to meet to unlock the money.

The compromise caused controversy in Brussels, with some members of the European Commission voicing their concern. But eventually it was approved by EU member states, with only the Netherlands abstaining, reported Radio Zet.

However, the four European judges’ organisations now say that the milestones are far from sufficient to ensure judicial independence and that they disregard CJEU rulings against Poland. In particular, “the decision of the EU Council harms the position of the suspended judges in Poland,” they wrote.

While the CJEU ruling regarding Polish judges affected by unlawful disciplinary procedures should be implemented without delay and judges should be reinstated, Poland has proposed a procedure “of more than a year with an uncertain outcome”, argue the judges’ groups.

“This decision also harms the European judiciary as a whole and the position of every single European judge,” they add. “All judges of every single Member State are also European judges, having to apply EU Law, in a system based on mutual trust.”

“If the judiciary of one or more Member States no longer offers guarantees of independence and respect for the basic principles of the Rule of Law, the entire European judiciary is undeniably affected.”

There remain doubts over whether Poland will be found to comply even with the existing milestones. In July, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned that a new law reforming Poland’s disciplinary system for judges – intended to meet the EU’s demands – was not in itself sufficient.

In particular, she noted that the “new law is not ensuring that judges are able to question the status of another judge without risking being subject to disciplinary offence”.

Subsequently, there has been a wave of anti-EU rhetoric from figures in and around Poland’s government. Earlier this month, ruling party chairman Jarosław Kaczyński declared that Poland has no reason to fulfil its obligations towards the EU given that Brussels has broken agreements with the Polish government.

Main photo credit: Transparency International EU Office/Flickr (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.