Back to CJEU cases

Case C-204/21

Case Information Subject Matter Stage of Proceedings
C-204/21
Party

European Commission v Republic of Poland

Type of proceeding
Actions for failure to fulfil obligations

The applicant claims that the Court should:

declare that, by adopting and maintaining in force Article 42a §§ 1 and 2 of the Ustawa prawo o ustroju sądów powszechnych (Law on the system of ordinary courts; ‘the LSOC’), as well as Article 55 § 4 thereof; Article 26 § 3 of the Ustawa o Sądzie Najwyższym (Law on the Supreme Court), as well as Article 29 §§ 2 and 3 thereof; and Article 5 §§ 1a and 1b of the Ustawa o sądach administracyjnych (Law on the administrative courts), in the wording resulting from the Ustawa z dnia 20 grudnia 2019 r. – Prawo o ustroju sądów powszechnych, ustawy o Sądzie Najwyższym oraz niektórych innych ustaw (Law of 20 December 2019 amending the Law on the system of ordinary courts, the Law on the Supreme Court and certain other laws; ‘the amending law’), as well as Article 8 of the amending law, which means that it is not permissible for any national court to review compliance with the EU requirement of being an independent and impartial tribunal previously established by law, the Republic of Poland has failed to fulfil its obligations under the second subparagraph of Article 19(1) TEU, read in conjunction with Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (‘the Charter’), in the light of the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights concerning Article 6(1) of the [European Convention on Human Rights], as well as Article 267 TFEU and the principle of the primacy of EU law;

declare that, by adopting and maintaining in force Article 26 § 2 and §§ 4 to 6 of the Law on the Supreme Court, as well as Article 82 §§ 2 to 5 thereof, in the wording resulting from the amending law, and Article 10 of the amending law, which place the examination of complaints and legal issues concerning the lack of independence of a court or judge under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Izba Kontroli Nadzwyczajnej i Spraw Publicznych Sądu Najwyższego (Extraordinary Review and Public Affairs Chamber of the Supreme Court), the Republic of Poland has failed to fulfil its obligations under the second subparagraph of Article 19(1) TEU, read in conjunction with Article 47 of the Charter, as well as Article 267 TFEU and the principle of the primacy of EU law;

declare that, by adopting and maintaining in force points 2 and 3 of Article 107 § 1 of the LSOC, as well as points 1 to 3 of Article 72 § 1 of the Law on the Supreme Court, in the wording resulting from the amending law, allowing the review of compliance with the EU requirement of being an independent and impartial tribunal previously established by law to be classified as a disciplinary offence, the Republic of Poland has failed to fulfil its obligations under the second subparagraph of Article 19(1) TEU, read in conjunction with Article 47 of the Charter, as well as Article 267 TFEU;

declare that, by conferring decision-making powers in cases which have a direct impact on the status and tenure of office of judges and assessors (trainee judges) (such as allowing judges and assessors (trainee judges) to be criminally prosecuted or detained, cases relating to the employment and social insurance laws concerning Supreme Court judges, and cases relating to the retirement of a Supreme Court judge) on the Izba Dyscyplinarna Sądu Najwyższego (Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court), whose independence and impartiality are not guaranteed, the Republic of Poland has failed to fulfil its obligations under the second subparagraph of Article 19(1) TEU;

declare that, by adopting and maintaining in force Article 88a of the LSOC, Article 45 § 3 of the Law on the Supreme Court and Article 8 § 2 of the Law on the administrative courts, in the wording resulting from the amending law, the Republic of Poland has infringed the right to respect for private life and the right to the protection of personal data guaranteed by Article 7 and Article 8(1) of the Charter, as well as Article 6(1)(c) and (e), Article 6(3), and Article 9(1) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data; 1

order the Republic of Poland to pay the costs.

Categories
Fundamental Rights
Related links
Action Opinion (AG) Judgment Order