The CJEU announced the decision on Friday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
"The Vice-President (of the Court of Justice of the European Union) considered that the measures introduced by Poland ... may, to a large extent, ensure the implementation of the interim measures indicated in the decision of July 14, 2021," the European bloc’s top court said in a statement.
The CJEU noted that the disciplinary chamber for judges at Poland’s Supreme Court had been disbanded and said measures had been taken to strengthen the legal rights of judges affected by its rulings, the Reuters news agency reported.
At the same time, the CJEU’s Vice-President said that the measures adopted by Poland were “not sufficient” to ensure “the execution of all the temporary measures” and ruled to halve the daily fine, according to the IAR news agency.
The daily fine will remain in place until June 5, when the CJEU will issue its verdict in the case brought against by Poland by the European Union’s executive Commission, IAR reported.
EU officials on Friday confirmed that fines have been collected since November 3, 2021, which would put the total figure paid by Poland at over EUR 500 million, according to the Politico news service.
A spokesperson for the EU said the reduced daily fine was coming into effect as of Friday, the Reuters news agency reported.
Poland’s dispute with EU over rule of law
Poland's conservative government has been embroiled in a long-standing dispute with the European Commission over judicial reforms that critics say undermine the independence of the courts, according to reports.
The row has blocked EUR 23.9 billion in grants and EUR 11.5 billion in loans from the EU’s pandemic relief fund and also triggered the fines, news outlets have reported.
In 2021, the EU's top court ruled that Poland's system for disciplining judges was incompatible with the bloc's laws and then imposed a daily fine of EUR 1 million for Warsaw's failure to implement its ruling that the Polish Supreme Court’s disciplinary chamber for judges be dissolved, the Reuters news agency reported.
Poland has now dismantled the chamber and replaced it with a new body, although critics say the core problem of the politicisation of the judiciary remains unsolved, according to Reuters.
Last November, the Polish government asked the CJEU to suspend the fine, arguing it had delivered the reforms required by the CJEU, including the dissolution of the disciplinary chamber, the IAR news agency reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, Reuters, Politico