100M euros in fines withheld from Poland for non-compliance with EU court decision

The total amount of the fine withheld from Poland in connection with the failure to comply with the decision of the European Court to suspend the activities of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court of the Republic has exceeded 100 million euros, European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders said on air of the Belgian TV channel RTL on May 23, Report informs referring to TASS.

“Poland has received a fine of 1 million euros daily because it does not comply with the court's decision,” Reynders said. “Now the fine is more than 160 million euros, and we have already withheld more than 100 million euros.”

The Disciplinary Chamber was established in Poland in 2017 on the initiative of the Law and Justice party. The appearance of this structure caused concern in the European Union in connection with a possible violation of the principle of the independence of judges.

In 2020, the EU Court recognized these concerns as justified and “ordered Poland to immediately stop the operation of the rules on the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court.” In October 2021, the EU court imposed a fine of 1 million euros per day on Poland until the decision to abolish this structure is implemented.

The liquidation of the disciplinary chamber and the abolition of earlier decisions taken there, along with ensuring the independence of the choice of judges, were named by the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen as the main conditions for the adoption in Brussels of the Polish recovery plan, on the basis of which Poland can receive about 58 billion euros from the European Union.