Polish tribunal rules against reform required to access EU cash

Polish tribunal rules against reform required to access EU cash

A ruling on Monday by Poland's Constitutional Tribunal threatened to complicate the new pro-Europe Polish government's plan to mend European Union relations and access its cash.

The Constitutional Tribunal, one of the courts at the heart of a row with Brussels over the rule of law, said that judicial reform legislation which Poland needed to pass in order to access billions of euros in EU funds was unconstitutional.

Brussels has withheld the COVID-19 recovery funds and has required reform on issues such as judicial independence and green energy before handing Warsaw the cash.

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The European Commission has previously said it had serious doubts on the independence and impartiality of the Tribunal. It sued Poland in the EU's top court over violations of EU law by the Polish Constitutional Tribunal and its case law.

Poland's nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party which lost its majority in parliament after an Oct. 15 election, repeatedly clashed with Brussels over the rule of law.

Its candidate for prime minister lost a vote of confidence on Monday and an alliance of pro-European parties is now set to form a government.

But the Tribunal's ruling, together with one issued earlier on Monday on the unconstitutionality of the EU top court's interim measures, may dash the new cabinet's hopes of obtaining the funds from Brussels soon.

Under the bill which President Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally, asked the Tribunal to examine, the Supreme Administrative Court would start dealing with disciplinary cases of judges.

Previously, a chamber of the Supreme Court handled such cases, and critics said it punished judges critical of the PiS government's judicial reforms.