The decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (TSUE) has no impact whatsoever on the functioning of the constitutional authorities of the Republic of Poland. It was issued entirely outside the competences of this body. The TSUE is not empowered to assess the Polish Constitution or the Polish Constitutional Tribunal (TK), “we read in a statement published on the TK’s website,”.

At a hearing, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the Polish Constitutional Tribunal (TK), by failing to respect the TSUE’s case law, had breached several fundamental principles of EU law. The judgment found that the TK does not meet the requirements of an independent and impartial court established by law.

The decision is the result of a complaint filed with the TSUE in 2023 by the European Commission. The EU court appears to forget that, for example, Germany does not apply the absolute primacy of EU law over national law.

The TK comments

The Constitutional Tribunal (TK) addressed the ruling in a statement, indicating that the decision expressed by the TSUE “was issued entirely outside the competences of this body,”.

It was reiterated once again that “the highest law in the Republic of Poland is the Constitution, not the decisions of foreign bodies,” and it was added that Poland did not relinquish the primacy of national law over EU law when it joined the European Union in 2004. It was also emphasized that Poland “did not transfer to EU bodies competences concerning the judiciary and the administration of justice,”.

The statement also cited a TK judgment of 11 May 2005, delivered by a panel chaired by Prof. Marek Safjan, which held that “the Constitution of the Republic of Poland remains – by virtue of its special legal force – the ‘supreme law of the Republic of Poland’ in relation to all international agreements binding on the Republic of Poland, including those agreements that constitute the basis for the transfer of competences ‘in certain matters’. The primacy of EU law (Article 91(3)) applies only to statutes, not to the Constitution,”.

The President of the Constitutional Tribunal (TK), Bogdan Święczkowski, will be a guest on TV Republika’s program “Guest Today” at 8:20 p.m.