“Our state must not submit to lawlessness.”
(Photo: imago images / newspix)
Warsaw Poland’s Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro has rejected the payment of fines ordered by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). “Poland cannot and should not pay a single zloty,” he said on Thursday in Warsaw, according to the PAP news agency.
The Polish state should not “submit to lawlessness”. This applies to the fines imposed in connection with the controversial judicial reform and the Turow lignite mining on the border with Saxony.
The court in Luxembourg sentenced Poland to pay a daily fine of one million euros on Wednesday. The reason is the country’s refusal to date to implement EU supreme court decisions on Polish judicial reforms.
Not compatible with EU rules
It is particularly about the order to stop the work of the controversial disciplinary body to punish judges. According to ECJ rulings, the activity is not compatible with EU rules on the independence and impartiality of the judiciary.
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Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki had already warned in an interview with the Financial Times earlier this week that his country would not negotiate its judicial reforms “with a gun to its head”.
He even accused the EU commission responsible for the proceedings against Poland of considering a “third world war” against his country. “When they start World War III, we will defend our rights with all means at our disposal,” he said.
On September 20, Poland was sentenced to a fine by the ECJ for the Turow opencast mine. Despite an interim ECJ order from May, Warsaw did not stop lignite mining, according to an order from ECJ Vice-President Rosario Silva de Lapuerta. Therefore, Poland would have to pay a fine of 500,000 euros for every day that it does not comply with the order.
More: Poland has to pay a fine of one million euros a day because of its judicial reform