Poland’s top court has rejected the principle of the primacy of EU law over national legislation in certain judicial matters, in a major challenge to the EU’s legal framework the BBC reports.
The Constitutional Tribunal said some EU treaty articles were incompatible with Poland’s constitution. Polish judges, it said, should not use EU law to question the independence of their peers.
The European Commission said the ruling raised “serious concerns.”
EU law, the Commission stated, has primacy over national law, including constitutional provisions, and all rulings by the European Court of Justice are binding on all member states’ authorities, including national courts.
The legal challenge was brought by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki (pictured), the first time in the history of the 27-strong EU bloc that a leader of a member state had questioned wholesale EU treaties in a constitutional court.
Morawiecki brought the challenge in March after the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that the new system of selecting judges in Poland – introduced in 2018 by the governing coalition – infringed EU law.
He wanted to prevent Polish judges from using EU law to question the legitimacy of judges appointed following recent changes to the judiciary.
Those changes have been criticised by the European Commission and many international legal bodies for undermining judicial independence and increasing political control over courts.
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