Warsaw’s long-standing gripe with Brussels has ramped up a notch. Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal has said that the provisions of European Union orders and judicial rulings go against the country’s highest law.
The legal challenge – brought by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki – concluded that the EU should not use its laws to question Poland’s new system of selecting judges. The government will publish the decision in its Journal of Laws in the coming days.
This is the first time a member-state has questioned wholesale treaties in a constitutional court.
The EU isn’t taking it well. The European Commission said it “will not hesitate to make use of its powers” to protect the primacy of EU law and accused Morawiecki of putting Poland on the “path to Polexit”.
The Commission is likely to launch a legal challenge and may delay approval for Poland’s £48 billion coronavirus recovery plan.
Even if the spat doesn’t mean “Polexit” is just around the corner, it’s sure to make already chilly relations with Brussels quite a lot frostier.
