The General Court of the European Union has dismissed an action brought by Poland against the enforcement of EU penalty payments for violations of the rule of law.
An amount totalling around €320 million ($333 million) was rightly offset against various Polish claims from EU funds, according to the ruling.
The European Commission had not violated EU law by collecting the amounts owed, it said.
The fines date back to 2021 and are a result of a dispute over substantial changes to the Poland’s judiciary that limited its independence, carried out by the national-conservative government at the time.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ), the EU’s highest court, ruled that the reforms partially violated the rule of law and ordered Poland to pay €1 million a day for failing to reverse some of the measures.
The amount was later halved after some concessions, but the Polish government did not pay the penalties and the commission started offsetting the due fines.
The dispute only came to an end with the change of government in 2023, when the new government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk promised to reverse criticized reforms.
Poland can still appeal Wednesday’s decision to the ECJ. Whether this will happen remains unclear for the time being.
The action before the lower EU court was initiated during the time of the national-conservative PiS government.
