In a statement following the judgment on Thursday, Żurek said the Court of Justice of the European Union, based in Luxembourg, is “also a Polish court,” arguing that EU law forms part of Poland’s legal order through treaties Poland has signed and must respect.
He said the ruling means the Constitutional Tribunal is not functioning properly and obliges the state to change “what is happening” in the body.
“If we have an institution that is a Constitutional Tribunal in name only, then citizens do not have proper legal protection,” Żurek said, adding that people cannot realistically turn to it expecting their complaint to be examined and their rights defended.
He appealed for cross-party talks on rebuilding a tribunal that is lawful, independent, and trusted.
“Let us all sit at one table and think about how to restore a good Constitutional Tribunal that is in line with the law,” he said.
Tensions have spilled into funding as well. After budget cuts affecting the tribunal, the president challenged the move and the tribunal ruled the reductions unconstitutional. Despite that, tribunal judges have reportedly gone unpaid for months.
The case was brought by the European Commission in 2023 after the Constitutional Tribunal issued two rulings in 2021 that challenged a cornerstone principle of the European Union, the primacy of EU law.
Primacy means that where EU law applies, it takes precedence over conflicting national law, ensuring the same rules are applied across the bloc.
On Thursday, the EU court found that Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal had violated EU law by failing to respect the Court of Justice’s judgments and by undermining effective judicial protection, a basic requirement for EU member states.
The Commission’s action was supported by Belgium and the Netherlands.
The Commission also argued that the tribunal does not meet EU standards for an independent and impartial court “established by law,” pointing to irregularities in appointments made during Poland’s constitutional crisis that began in 2015.
Those concerns included the selection of three judges in December 2015 and the process by which Julia Przyłębska became president of the tribunal in December 2016. Przyłębska served in that role until November 2024.
The disputed 2015 appointments involved Henryk Cioch, Lech Morawski, and Mariusz Muszyński, who were sworn in by then President Andrzej Duda after the Sejm, Poland's lower house, adopted resolutions declaring the earlier election of judges by the previous parliament legally ineffective.
After Cioch and Morawski died in 2017, Justyn Piskorski and Jarosław Wyrembak were elected to replace them.
The 2021 tribunal judgments at the heart of the EU case were issued on July 14 and October 7.
One ruling concerned interim measures ordered by the EU court relating to Poland’s judiciary, including steps connected to the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court, which Brussels and the EU court had criticised as undermining judicial independence.
The other ruling, issued after a request from then Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, asserted that EU treaties cannot take precedence over Poland’s constitution, escalating Poland’s dispute with EU institutions over rule-of-law standards during the years when the Law and Justice (PiS) party governed.
Poland’s current governing coalition, elected in 2023, has argued that some tribunal decisions were issued in breach of the law and should not be treated as binding.
In March 2024, Polish MPs adopted a resolution on removing the effects of the 2015–2023 constitutional crisis, warning that relying on certain tribunal rulings could itself violate the principle that public authorities must act on a clear legal basis.
Since that resolution, tribunal judgments have not been published in the Journal of Laws, the state gazette where rulings are normally officially promulgated.
The dispute has also stalled efforts to overhaul the tribunal. The lower house adopted two reform laws last year, aimed at restoring the body’s independence and rebuilding public trust, but the president referred them for preventive review and the tribunal found them unconstitutional in July.
Separately, the Senate, the upper house, has been working on a constitutional amendment proposal that would end the terms of current judges and introduce a new appointment model, including limits on political influence and changes designed to strengthen constitutional review across the broader court system.
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Thursday that the ruling by the EU’s top court gives his government the green light to restore the Constitutional Tribunal after years of legal turmoil under the previous administration.
(rt/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, curia.europa.eu