By deciding, Thursday October 7, that “The bodies of the European Union operate outside the powers conferred on them in the Treaties”, the Polish constitutional court ignited the debate on sovereignties, which smolders everywhere on the continent, and in particular in France. An attack “Extremely serious” against the European Union (EU), declared the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, on RMC and BFM-TV. “The return of the sovereignty of France will go through the superiority of French law over European decisions”, judged on the contrary on Twitter Arnaud Montebourg, declared presidential candidate.
Tania Racho, doctor in European law and member of the legal fact-checking collective Highlighters, decipher this decision for The world. According to her, “By engaging with member states in a debate on values, Europe is at a turning point”.
What happened Thursday between Poland and the European Union?
Poland said: “We are not applying Union law because it goes too far. The country’s constitutional court has opposed certain decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). Important justice reforms have been initiated in Poland since the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party came to power in 2015. In particular, a disciplinary chamber sanctions magistrates if they render decisions based on European law . This is what happened to judge Igor Tuleya. In the eyes of the EU, this chamber has too much power and the judges are not independent.
The Union has therefore launched an “infringement remedy” against European rules. It is a four-step procedure. First, the European Commission engages in a dialogue with the target state, telling it what it considers to be a violation of the treaties. It is not necessarily public and, if the state corrects, it can stop there. Otherwise, the CJEU is referred to establish the finding of breach and validate the process legally. Here again, the state can comply with the decision. If this is still not the case follows a new period of dialogue between this country and the Commission. If it does not succeed, we move on to the fourth step: the CJEU decides on financial sanctions against this country.
Regarding the disciplinary chamber of judges, we are at this fourth stage. The sanction is on its way, and this is probably what motivated the decision on Thursday of the Polish Constitutional Court – against which the Commission will undoubtedly activate the same infringement procedure very quickly.
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