Last October, the Court of the European Union sentenced Poland to a fine of one million euros a day for failing to comply with the court’s order to suspend the disciplinary section of the Supreme Court. It had the power to waive the judicial immunity of judges and to reduce their salaries.
Fines of around € 370 million have already been accumulated, of which around € 270 million have been withdrawn from the funds Poland receives from the EU.
Poland replaced the disciplinary chamber of the Supreme Court with a new body, but critics say the problem of limiting the independence of the judiciary has not been solved.
The European Commission (EC) announced that it received a similar request from Poland to lift sanctions in June. At the time, the EC concluded that, despite progress on specific issues, not all problems had been resolved.
The EC press representative announced that the EC will carefully analyze the new letter from Poland and assess whether the changes made by Poland mean that the country now fully abides by the decisions of the EU Court.
“Until this is done, Poland will continue to pay the fines imposed by the court,” said the EC representative.
