BRUSSELS -- The European Union stepped up its rule-of-law fight with member state Poland on Monday when the bloc's highest court confirmed that Warsaw refused to comply with EU rules on judicial independence for which it has already lost more than $535 million in fines.
The Court of Justice of the EU ruled that Poland's 2019 justice overhaul infringed EU law after the European Commission, the bloc's executive branch, said that the Polish Supreme Court lacked the necessary independence and impartiality.
"Bad news for the government," declared the conservative Do Rzeczy news portal about the EU court ruling.
The state broadcaster, TVP, which acts as a propaganda arm of the ruling party, said the EU court had overstepped its powers and "attack Poland again. The court exceeds its powers."
The court decision was, however, welcomed by lawyers and other legal experts who hope it might restore independence to the judiciary.
The EU court argued that "the value of the rule of law is an integral part of the very identity of the European Union as a common legal order and is given concrete expression in principles containing legally binding obligations for the Member States." It said Poland didn't meet these obligations.
Amid criticism, the court said "the measures thus adopted by the Polish legislature are incompatible with the guarantees of access to an independent and impartial tribunal."
Poland's minister for the European Union, Szymon Szynkowski vel Sek, said some parts of the ruling were no longer valid or had been abolished.
The court said that Polish law requires judges to divulge membership in an association or party and allows that information to be made public. The court ruling said that the provisions were "liable to expose judges to risks of undue stigmatization."
In the legal standoff between Brussels and Warsaw, EU authorities are also withholding the release of around $37 billion in pandemic recovery funds.
After the collapse of the Soviet empire, Poland joined the EU along with other Central and Eastern European nations. Since they emerged from autocracy, they were long models for other emerging democracies. Critics now say that Poland and Hungary are slipping again toward one-party authoritarian rule.
Information for this article was contributed by Vanessa Gera of The Associated Press.
Participants join an anti-government march led by the centrist opposition party leader Donald Tusk, who along with other critics accuses the government of eroding democracy, in Warsaw, Poland, Sunday, June 4, 2023. Poland's largest opposition party led a march Sunday meant to mobilize voters against the right-wing government, which it accuses of eroding democracy and following Hungary and Turkey down the path to autocracy. The march is being held on the 34th anniversary of the first partly free elections, a democratic breakthrough in the toppling of communism across Eastern Europe. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)