European Commission calls on Poland to respect priority European law | abroad

European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders sent a letter to European Affairs Minister Konrad Szymansky on Wednesday. “We are concerned about the proposal because it challenges basic principles of European law, in particular the primacy of European law,” a spokesperson said on Thursday. “All judgments of the European Court of Justice are binding on the authorities of member states, including national courts.” The Commission will give Poland one month to respond to its request.

In a March 29 motion, Morawiecki asked the Constitutional Court to rule on the superiority of the Polish constitution over European law. The prime minister’s national initiative is part of a long-running dispute with European institutions over judicial reforms in Poland. Poland has been condemned by the European Court several times because the reforms undermine the independence of the judiciary.

The European rule of law must ensure that European laws are applied in the same way in all member states. To uphold this principle, the commission also began a violation procedure against Germany on Wednesday. There the Constitutional Court last year handed down a decision on the purchase of government bonds by the European Central Bank that was inconsistent with the previous case law of the Court of Justice. Morawiecki hailed the German ruling as “one of the most important in the history of the European Union”.

Many EU member states question the independence of the courts