The General Court has confirmed that Poland must pay a penalty payment totalling approximately EUR 320,200,000, which was decided by the Court of Justice of the European Union during the infringement proceedings.
On 1 April 2021, the European Commission brought an action for failure to fulfil obligations against Poland before the Court of Justice seeking a declaration that certain legislative changes to the organisation of the judicial system in Poland, adopted in December 2019, infringe EU law.
In the course of these proceedings, the Court ordered Poland, inter alia, to suspend the application of certain national provisions challenged by the Commission. As Poland failed to implement this interim measure, it was ordered on 27 October 2021 to pay a daily penalty payment of EUR 1 million to the Commission. This daily penalty payment started to run from 3 November 2021.
On 9 June 2022, Poland adopted a law to comply with the interim measure imposed by the Court of Justice. On 21 April 2021, the Court of Justice ruled that this legislative change makes it possible to implement the interim measure to a large extent. Therefore, the amount of the daily penalty payment was reduced to EUR 500,000 per day as of 21 April 2023.
As Poland failed to pay the daily penalty payment, the Commission regularly recovered the amount of the penalty payment by offsetting various claims of the Member State against the European Union.
Poland brought an action before the General Court of the European Union seeking the annulment of a total of six set-off decisions covering the period from 15 July 2022 to 4 June 2023, i.e. from the entry into force of the law of 9 June 2022 until the day before the judgment of the Court of Justice closing the case. The amounts thus recovered amount to approximately EUR 320 200 000.
In the alternative, Poland submits that the legislative change which justified the halving of the penalty payment preceded the Court's decision of 21 April 2023. Thus, from 15 July 2022 to 20 April 2023, the Commission could no longer require payment of the sum of EUR 1 million per day. Poland therefore proposes that the Commission's decisions be partially annulled in so far as they relate to the 50 % set-off claims for the above period.
The General Court dismisses Poland's action in its entirety.
The Commission has not infringed EU law in recovering the sums owed. In particular, the Court notes that neither the case-law of the Polish Constitutional Court nor the entry into force of the Act of 9 June 2022 makes it possible to dispute the existence of the claim itself. They did not therefore affect the lawfulness of the set-off decision.
As regards the alternative application for partial annulment of the set-off decision, the General Court recalled that The reduction in the daily penalty payment awarded by the Court on 21 April 2023 had only prospective effect. It therefore applied only to sums due from that date.
As the daily penalty payment set by the order of 27 October 2021 remained unchanged until 21 April 2023, and as Poland had not fully complied with its obligations, the The Commission is obliged to ensure that this amount is recovered in full. Moreover, an admission that the Commission had the ability, or even the obligation, to adjust the daily penalty amount in the event of partial compliance would call into question the authority of the October 27, 2021 Order.
SDEU/ gnews - RoZ
PHOTO - SDEU
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