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(CN) — The EU’s second highest court on Wednesday upheld millions in penalties against Poland after the country refused to adhere to the Luxembourg-based court’s order to undo changes to its judiciary system.
The General Court dismissed a complaint brought by the previous Polish government over 320 million euros ($330 million) in fines, finding that the European Commission had the right to collect the money by withholding the amount from payments to Warsaw.
“In recovering the amounts payable, the Commission did not infringe EU law,” the court said in a news release.
The European Commission launched infringement proceedings against Poland in 2019 over controversial judicial changes the Law and Justice party passed after coming to power in 2015.
The government sparked a fierce fight after it tried to remove Supreme Court judges it didn’t like by lowering the retirement age and setting up a new disciplinary chamber overseen by government-appointed judges.
Critics accused the right-wing nationalist government of stacking the courts with its allies and pushing out judges it didn’t like.
In 2021, the European Court of Justice — the EU’s highest court — held that the right-wing government set up an illegal judicial disciplinary chamber to remove judges it viewed unfavorably.
The judges said this new disciplinary chamber “does not provide all the guarantees of impartiality and independence” and was too much under the influence of the Polish government.
The court then slapped a $1.16-million-euro-a-day fine (about $1.2 million in today’s terms) on Poland after it refused to comply with the order to dismantle the chamber.
A year later, Poland gave in after Brussels refused to hand over billions in Covid-19 relief funds. “We don’t need this dispute,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said at the time.
Duda’s government, however, contested the fine, which is currently the largest ever issued by the court. In 2023 Poles elected a new government much more favorable to rule of law. But the proceedings against the fine were already underway.
Hungary will likely soon overtake Poland’s record. Last year, the court fined Hungary 200 million euros ($216 million) and imposed a daily 1 million euro penalty for failing to follow the bloc’s asylum laws and illegally deporting migrants.
Budapest has continued to restrict migrants’ ability to formally ask for asylum and is not upholding their right to stay in Hungary while their applications are processed, the court said.
Poland has two months to appeal the decision to the Court of Justice.
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