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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal (TK) has found that the parts of the state budget for 2025 that significantly cut funding for two judicial bodies, the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS) and the TK itself, are unconstitutional.
The move – likely to be ignored by the government, which does not recognise the TK’s legitimacy – marks the latest twist in the ongoing rule-of-law conflict between the ruling coalition and the TK, which remains filled with judges appointed under the former Law and Justice (PiS) government.
Przepisy budżetu państwa na 2025 rok na mocy których zmniejszone zostały środki dla Trybunału Konstytucyjnego i Krajowej Rady Sądownictwa są niekonstytucyjne – orzekł dzisiaj Trybunał Konstytucyjny. #RozprawaTK K 2/25https://t.co/JRbBusS1E5
— Trybunał Konstytucyjny (@TK_GOV_PL) May 6, 2025
The 2025 budget was signed by PiS-aligned President Andrzej Duda in January. However, he also sent parts of the spending plans containing significant cuts in funding for the KRS and the TK to the TK for assessment.
This way, the tribunal was placed in the unusual position of having to issue a ruling on the constitutionality of cuts to its own budget.
Both institutions in question are seen as being under the influence of PiS due to actions it undertook during its time in power from 2015 to 2023. Both are also deemed illegitimate by the government, a position likewise held by many legal experts and confirmed by court rulings, including by the European Court of Justice.
The current government, led by Donald Tusk, has attempted to overhaul both the TK and KRS to make both bodies legitimate once again. However, Duda has refused to sign bills aiming to reform these institutions, instead sending them to the TK for assessment.
In the 2025 budget, the government’s majority in parliament cut the amount of money granted to the KRS by 23% compared to what it had requested and the TK by 17%. It also cut the requested budget of the National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT), another body led by a PiS appointee, by 54%.
PiS argued that those cuts violate two articles of the constitution: one guaranteeing that TK judges be “provided with working conditions and remuneration corresponding to the dignity of the office and the scope of their duties”, and the other defining the separation of powers between the legislative, executive and judicial branches.
President Duda has signed the government’s 2025 budget but also sent parts of it to the constitutional court for assessment
The decision may further deepen Poland's constitutional crisis, given that the government does not recognise the court's legitimacy https://t.co/9xZxANOmN7
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) January 17, 2025
Now the TK has issued its decision of the financing cuts included in the 2025 budget, finding them unconstitutional. It argued that the Polish parliament “has made unprecedented reductions…in a way that makes it difficult or impossible for the constitutional organs of the state to perform their tasks”.
In a statement published on X, the TK argued that, “in a democratic state under the rule of law, whose system is based on the separation and balance of powers, it is natural that the action of independent, constitutional public authorities, may conflict with the short-term political interests of the government and parliament.”
But, added the tribunal, “in a democratic state under the rule of law, it is unthinkable for public authorities to refuse to perform a legally determined service”.
The head of the constitutional court – an opposition ally – has announced an investigation into Prime Minister @donaldtusk and other government officials for allegedly carrying out a “coup d’état” as part of an “organised criminal group” https://t.co/2038w3trwj
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) February 5, 2025
The TK has also formulated budgetary guarantees that the legislature must meet when enacting the financial plans of state bodies. The financial plans included in the budget law must provide constitutional bodies with sufficient resources to carry out their duties so that they can meet their contractual financial obligations on time.
Meanwhile any significant changes to financial plans should result from changes in the responsibilities or operational model of these bodies introduced in the constitution or through a relevant bill, and the bodies should be given time to adapt to new financial conditions.
“Constitutional bodies must have continuous funding from the state budget in order to be able to fulfil their constitutional and statutory duties and obligations efficiently and without interruption,” the TK added.
The TK demanded that the budget for 2025 be amended immediately to adjust it to the tribunal’s decision. However, the ruling coalition is likely to ignore it, as it has done with other TK rulings up to this point, arguing they are invalid as the court is not legitimately formed.
Fifteen months since the change of government, Poland's rule-of-law crisis continues – indeed, many Poles think the situation has got worse.@J_Jaraczewski explains the roots of the crisis, what its impact has been, and how it might be resolved https://t.co/7KOCURV3dU
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) March 17, 2025
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: Lukas Plewnia/Flickr (under CC BY-SA 2.0)
Agata Pyka is an assistant editor at Notes from Poland. She is a journalist and a political communication student at the University of Amsterdam. She specialises in Polish and European politics as well as investigative journalism and has previously written for Euractiv and The European Correspondent.
