PiS government asks CJEU to deny EU Commission's bid for interim measures for Poland

Poland has sent its explanation to the Court of Justice of the EU regarding EU Commission's request to impose interim measures on Polish Supreme Court's Disciplinary Chamber. A source in the EU has told Polish Press Agency (PAP) that Poland called on the EU court to deny the Commission's request.

The spokesman for the Polish government Piotr Müller commented on the issue on Thursday. "In a letter sent today to the CJEU, the government said the EU Commission's request for interim measures was unacceptable. The said measures would lead to suspending of one of Poland's constitutional bodies - the Supreme Court. They are also in blatant violation with the irremovability of judges principle" - Müller wrote on Twitter.

The EU source also told PAP that Poland's response had dozens of pages.

"Rzeczpospolita" daily wrote last Friday that Poland could be facing fines up to 2 million euro per day for not "freezing" the operations of the Disciplinary Chamber.

On Wednesday (February 12th), the EU sources said the EU Commission had not been asking for financial penalties for Poland in its request. Furthermore, the CJEU press office said on Monday that the information published by "Rzeczpospolita" had not come from the high court.

The European Union's executive on October 10 filed a case at the bloc's top court against Poland's ruling nationalists over new measures they have introduced for disciplining judges, which the EU says violates the principle of judicial independence.

The Commission said in a statement that it was acting "on the grounds that the new disciplinary regime undermines the judicial independence of Polish judges and does not ensure the necessary guarantees to protect judges from political control."