The Constitutional Tribunal of Julia Przyłębska ruled that Poland does not have to respect the decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union imposing interim measures, i.e. suspend the validity of provisions until the final judgment, regarding the judicial system and the procedure before Polish courts.
The Constitutional Tribunal found that the provisions of the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union in this respect are inconsistent with the Polish Constitution.
The Tribunal was sitting in a bench of five, chaired by Stanisław Piotrowicz, former PiS MP, member of the PZPR executive body and the martial law prosecutor. Importantly, the bench violates the European Convention on Human Rights, as it was ruled, among others, by Justyn Piskorski – a stand-in judge.
The European Court of Human Rights, in its May judgment in the case of Xero Flor v. Poland, stated that the Constitutional Tribunal with the participation of a person elected for an already occupied place in the Constitutional Tribunal is not a court established “in accordance with the law”.
The Tribunal should not deal with this matter at all, because the question was addressed to the Tribunal by the illegal Disciplinary Chamber in the person of the former prosecutor Małgorzata Bednarek. As the Deputy Human Rights Defender Maciej Taborowski explained at the hearing, the proceedings should be discontinued because the question does not meet the conditions that allow the Constitutional Tribunal to consider it. A legal question may be submitted to the Tribunal by a court, while the Disciplinary Chamber is not a court, as confirmed by the Supreme Court itself, and also in judgments by common courts.
Leaving aside the question of whether today’s decision is legal and correct and whether it was issued by the Constitutional Tribunal, the decision means that we have entered the next stage of the legal polexit!
As the Ombudsman Adam Bodnar pointed out, the judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal prohibiting the use of CJEU judgments in Poland strikes at the very heart of EU law. It may lead to the exclusion of Polish courts from the EU requirements of independence as well as the impartiality of judges. This, in turn, will lead to a breach of the EU’s principles of effective judicial protection and the rule of law.
It should be emphasized that today’s decision has not resulted in the repeal of the provisions of the Treaties, which are still in force in Poland. The refusal to recognize the provisions of the CJEU is not only legally ineffective, but also exposes Poland to financial penalties (as, for example, in the case of Turów).
As is clear from the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Tribunal so far, if a decision is actually taken that the Treaty is inconsistent with the Polish Constitution, Poland has three options – either to amend the Constitution, or initiate changes to the Treaty, asking for the consent of all Member States, or … to terminate the Treaty by leaving the European Union.
As long as the Treaty on European Union is not pronounced, it is part of our legal order and today’s decision of the Constitutional Tribunal by Julia Przyłębska cannot change that.
- Judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal
- Information on the proceedings – Commissioner for Human Rights
- MEDIA:
– OKO.press: Trybunał Konstytucyjny pod kierunkiem Piotrowicza orzekł: w Polsce nie obowiązują postanowienia TSUE
– tvn24.pl: Komentarze po wyroku TK – mec. Sylwia Gregorczyk-Abram i prof. Marek Chmaj
– tvn24.pl: Fakty po Faktach z udziałem SSN Michała Laskowskiego i mec. Michała Wawrykiewicza