The ruling of the government-controlled Constitutional Tribunal opens the next stage of the political and legal confrontation between the Polish government and the European Union. During the online debate by ECFR Warsaw and ideaForum of the Batory Foundation we will discuss what are the consequences of judgment for Poland and for the European Union. We will ask experts whether Poland has actually entered the path of polexit and what the EU should do to defend its legal space and protect the authority of the CJEU.
The Constitutional Tribunal decision directly undermines the principles that Poland committed to when it joined the EU in 2004. The ruling on the unconstitutionality of the TUE provisions is not only a blatant violation of EU law, but also a violation of the Polish Constitution, based on which Poland respects the international law – writes The Legal Experts Group of the Batory Foundation.
A new issue could soon be added to the growing list of ways in which Poland is accused of violating EU law: the media market and the country’s National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT). Bills regulating the KRRiT – including the latest one, which is meant to lead to the sale of private broadcaster TVN – do not secure its independence – writes Szymon Ananicz.
Legal Experts Group: The so-called “reforms” of the Polish judiciary introduced over the past few years are actually destroying it. They violate both the Constitution and European Union law, because the Constitution and the founding Treaties are built on the same axiological basis – the values of the democratic state and the rule of law.
The European Union is not merely a community based on democracy and the rule of law. It is also an organisation which functions in a way advantageous to undemocratic governments and may strengthen their authoritarian impulses.
