Poland has just made an unprecedented decision among the countries of the European Union: its Constitutional Court has taken a completely disruptive decision by dictating that its Constitution is above Community law, which means, de facto, a challenge.
Among other issues, it leaves the door open for Poland not to comply with the judgments of the European Union courts.
The Constitutional Court of Poland has ruled this Thursday that the country’s Magna Carta prevails over EU law, which leaves the various fronts open with Brussels in the air and opens the door for Warsaw not to comply with the judgments of Justice European.
The Constitutional Court has ruled, after postponing the ruling up to three times, on a request from the Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki , after the EU Court of Justice (TEU) ruled that the judicial reforms undertaken by the Government could lead to a violation of community laws.
In this way, the highest Polish court, chaired by Julia Przylebska , has ruled that some of the community regulations are incompatible with the Constitution of Poland, reports ‘Rzeczpospolita’, reports EP .
“The attempt to interfere in the Polish judiciary by the TEU violates the principle of the rule of law, the principle of supremacy of the Constitution and the principle of preservation of sovereignty in the process of European integration,” he concluded in Constitutional, while its president has defended that “the organs of the European Union operate outside the limits of the powers conferred by the Republic of Poland in the treaties.”
Of the twelve judges present, two have shown their rejection of the sentence, in contrast to the magistrates who have emphasized that “in the hierarchy of sources of law, the Treaty of the European Union is below the Constitution, like everything ratified international agreement ”, in the words of judge Bartlomiej Sochanski.
“As long as the EU bodies operate under delegated powers, as long as this stage of cooperation does not deprive the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of its primacy, Poland will retain the functions of a sovereign and democratic state. […] However, there is no organization or system of the judiciary among the delegated powers ”, added Sochanski.
Furthermore, the Polish judges have questioned the powers of the TEU to provide that national courts can review the legality of the appointments of judges by the president, while considering that these provisions are unconstitutional insofar as European bodies operate outside of the limits of the powers conferred by Poland in the treaties.
“The powers of the organs of state authority of the Republic of Poland cannot be exercised by authorities to which Poland has not delegated them”, the magistrates have considered, and in case of applying the provisions dictated by other organs “Poland would lose its legal sovereignty ”, they have qualified in the statement, which includes the Interia news portal.
The Constitutional Court has gone further to criticize that “no member state (of the EU) exercises its rights in a categorically sovereign manner, since the exercise of sovereign rights by each member state must be somewhat limited by the scope of delegated powers. to the European Union ”and to censure that“ Polish citizens have no direct influence on the election of the members of the bodies of the European Union, including the judges of the TEU ”.
After presenting its arguments, the court has warned that “if the progressive activism of the TEU, which consists of interfering in the exclusive powers of the Polish state authorities (…) is not abandoned”, the Constitutional Court does not rule out “reviewing the constitutionality of the judgments of the TEU “.
In mid-July, the TUE questioned some of the reforms promoted by the Government led by the Law and Justice Party (PiS), in particular the disciplinary regime established for judges.
Tensions between Warsaw and Brussels have been increasing in recent months, with the PiS even proposing the possibility of taking “drastic” measures in the face of the escalating political pulse, proposing the country’s continuity within the EU, which has not yet authorized the disbursement of 23,900 million euros contemplated in the recovery plan after the pandemic.
