Conflict between the Polish Constitutional Tribunal and the CJEU with regard to the reforms of the judiciary

The article discusses the rulings of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal (CT) of 14 July 2021 (P 7/20) and 7 October 2021 (K 3/21) aimed to defend the controversial reforms in the judiciary introduced in Poland since 2016 by excluding any EU control. The CT took a confrontational stance towards the competence of the CJEU and fundamental principles of EU law. The judgments referred to the ultra vires doctrine of the German Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG) and used it to the extreme. The CT deliberately excluded requesting a preliminary ruling from the CJEU. On 22 December 2021 the European Commission initiated proceedings related to violations of EU law by the CT, however, the administrative stage of the procedure under Art. 258 TFUE has not been completed so far. An attempt at a political compromise outlined by the Commission with regard to the approval of the Polish national recovery and resilience plan necessary for obtaining funds from NextGenerationEU weakens the effectiveness of the CJEU judgments. Recent legislative changes aimed at correcting the situation are only apparent. This deepens legal chaos and discourages judges from applying EU law.