Brussels is moving up a gear in the legal standoff between it and the Polish government. The European Commission has announced that it will directly withhold the sums owed by Warsaw following the European Court’s decision, which ordered the closure of the Turow lignite mine in May 2021.
This decision of the European Commission is a first. The government spokesman immediately announced that the country would oppose this decision by all possible legal means. Warsaw has never recognized the legitimacy of the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union. According to the spokesperson for the Polish government, this decision goes beyond the EU treaties and does not respect the guarantees granted to member countries in terms of energy security.
Poland has therefore neither closed the Turow mine nor paid the late payment penalties which today amount to 15 million euros. It is these penalties that will be deducted from the European funds allocated to Warsaw. The Commission did not specify which sector would be affected, and specified that these penalties remained due even if Poland and the Czech Republic had since reached an agreement on the dispute between them.
In addition, the Polish government still refuses to suspend the disciplinary chamber of its Supreme Court, challenged by the Commission, because it hinders the independence of justice. In this case, which directly relates to respect for the rule of law, the financial penalties amount to more than 100 million euros. The Commission also plans to withhold this sum from European funds.
►To listen: Poland: why the authorities defy the European Union on the question of law?