Court of Justice

Blackmail as policy

Orban also promised he would prevent any pro-migration regulations in the EU, even at the level of recommendations, and underlined his government's belief in the traditional family model, comprised of a man and a woman. Bolsonaro, in return, praised Orban and said the values of his government - God, fatherland, family, freedom - make Hungary a model for Brazil.

But Warsaw is flexing its muscles to lash out against the EU more generally. The PiS government has rejected the judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on its reforms of the judiciary. And Warsaw refuses to pay the penalties imposed by the CJEU, which to date amount to over 130 million euros.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (WEU) weighed in heavily for the LARCO case. According to today's decision, Greece is obliged to pay a lump sum of 5.5 million euros and a fine of more than 4 million euros per half-year of delay, because it did not recover the state aid of 160 million euros granted to the nickel industry.

The history

A leading environmental activist in Romania, Octavian Berceanu, told BIRN on Friday that Romanian authorities do not want to collect accurate data on the amount of air pollution in the country because sanctions would be triggered. 

Today, the legal service of the European Parliament filed an appeal with the Court of Justice at the request of President David Sassoli, said the spokesperson of the EU Parliament.

The fine is the latest development in an ongoing conflict between Warsaw and Brussels over rule of law, which reached a critical moment earlier this month, when the politically controlled Polish Constitutional Tribunal ruled that some articles in EU Treaties were not compatible with the Polish Constitution.

Politicians in Poland reacted to the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union, which ordered Warsaw to pay a fine of one million euros a day until the dissolution of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court, reports the news portal Onet.

Polish authorities do not believe that the resolution adopted by the European Parliament (EP) on Thursday, which expresses dissatisfaction with Warsaw's actions, which MEPs say is trying to undermine the rule of European law, is binding. This was announced on Friday on Polish Radio by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic Piotr Wawczyk.

The heightened tension between Brussels and Warsaw followed the Polish Constitutional Tribunal's ruling on October 7 that key articles of EU Treaties were incompatible with the Polish constitution.