On 25 August 2022, the government of Poland surprised all when it sent a previously approved (but unannounced) bill on the termination of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) to the State’s lower chamber. The ECT is the biggest multilateral investment treaty in the world and the only one to exclusively regulate cooperation in the energy sector.
On Sunday, 28 August 2022, four major associations of European judges announced that they would challenge the Council’s Decision of 17 June that releases funds to Poland to help it recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. The four associations are seeking to prevent the release of recovery funds to Poland until it has complied with the Court’s judgments in full. Whether their action has any chance of success will depend on how the Court applies the long-standing Plaumann criteria.
Polen stehen rund 35,4 Mrd. Euro aus dem im Dezember vom Europäischen Rat beschlossenen Nachcorona-Sonderbudget („Next Generation“) zu. Bisher sind Zahlungen an Polen nicht geflossen. Die EU-Kommission hatte am 1. Juni eine Reihe von Reformauflagen für das polnische Justizsystem als Bedingungen für die Freigabe des Aufbau- und Resilienzplans beschlossen. Zwar hat die polnische Regierung seitdem einige Reformen veranlasst, die europarechtlichen Voraussetzungen für die Auszahlung von Geldern an Polen aus dem Aufbaufonds der EU sind aber weiterhin nicht gegeben.
Despite the recent abolition of the Disciplinary Chamber, the crisis in the Polish judiciary is still far from resolved. The main reason for this is that the status of judges appointed at the request of the National Council of the Judiciary have not yet been addressed. As a result of the lack of a systemic solution, the problem of irregular judicial appointments must be dealt with by courts in concrete cases. For that purpose, the Supreme Court developed a test aimed at determination of the impact of irregularities in the appointment of judges on the legality of the composition of the court. The most recent amendment to the Act on the Supreme Court introduced a new test and raises serious concerns.
The European Arrest Warrant mechanism has been one of the fiercest manifestations of the rule of law crisis in Poland. Four years have passed since the EU Court of Justice instructed executing courts to carry out a two-step test, to decide on the execution of EAWs issued by a Member State affected by systemic deficiencies to the independence of its judicial system. Four years later, the Polish government has only dug itself deeper into its authoritarian trench. With its recent rulings, the Court has significantly broadened the criteria and factors on which the executing courts can rely, when assessing the risk of a breach of Article 47(2) CFR in the issuing State.
In a recent post on Verfassungsblog, Michał Stambulski and Karol Muszyński make a number of wide-ranging statements and stinging criticisms of what they believe to be the shortcomings of “doctrinal constitutionalism”, “legal constitutionalism” and “doctrinal legal constitutionalism.” What the authors fail to do at any point, however, is define what they mean by these terms. Furthermore, their attack on doctrinal constitutionalism - which includes ad hominem attacks while ironically calling for a more serious engagement and less ‘emotional’ or ‘easy moral evaluation’ - fails to offer any alternative solutions to a rule of law crisis that the authors themselves readily acknowledge to be a problem. Aside from a plea to pay closer attention to economic, social and political context, it is by no means clear what they would put in place of the doctrinal/legal constitutionalism that they appear to be so passionately opposed to.
The Polish energy policy is seeing further controversies. The Minister of Climate and the Environment, Anna Moskwa, allowed poor quality coal to be sold for 60 days. This means that, up to 28 August, households are able to buy bituminous coal with a higher content of sulphur and mercury, as well as harmful mining waste, e.g. mining sludge. This decision is already causing considerable controversy not only among climate activists, but also among voivodship (local) authorities that are implementing so-called anti-smog resolutions.
In February 2022, the ECJ delivered a ruling in cases brought by Hungary and Poland against the European Parliament and Council. Not only did the ruling uphold the regime of conditionality for the protection of the EU budget; it also entered into the domain of European constitutional identity. Instead of undermining the European commitment to the rule of law, Poland and Hungary may have inadvertently consolidated the place of rule of law in the heart of EU identity.
In Poland and beyond, a media storm broke out in the beginning of June because of the so-called "pregnancy registry." The problem at the heart of the media storm is that if a woman decides to terminate her pregnancy, for example, abroad, it will be known because of the system's pregnancy data and prenatal test results. Nevertheless, it is difficult to judge this registry unequivocally, especially after hearing the arguments of both sides.
Die polnische Erfahrung zeigt, wie eine entschlossene populistische Regierung mit denen in einer Demokratie zur Verfügung stehenden Mitteln in relativ kurzer Zeit die zur Kontrolle der staatlichen Überwachungstätigkeit geschaffenen rechtlichen Garantien aushöhlen kann. Die notwendige Geheimhaltung, die die Arbeit der Sicherheitsdienste umgibt, darf keine Gelegenheit zum Missbrauch von Befugnissen schaffen. Eine Überwachung ohne angemessene Kontrolle schwächt die Demokratie, führt zu einer Verzerrung ihrer Grundsätze und bedroht letztlich, wie der EGMR gewarnt hat, ihre Existenz selbst.
13. September 2025
Giovanni Capoccia
12. September 2025
Anne Peters
12. September 2025
Anne Peters