The EU Court of Justice ruled on 18.12.2025 (Case C 448/23) that the Polish Constitutional Court does not constitute an independent and impartial court due to serious irregularities in the appointment of 3 of its judges and the President. He so took into account the complaint that the European Commission had lodged against Poland. Its reason was the rulings of the Constitutional Tribunal which hit the rule of the primacy of Union law before national law and questioned the power of the EU Court to apply safeguards concerning justice.
Violation of EU rules
The EU Court, taking into account the European Commission's complaint, found that Poland had failed to fulfil its obligations due to the fact that the Constitutional Tribunal violated the fundamental principles of EU law. First of all, according to the Luxembourg Court, he broke the rule of effective judicial protection and violated priority, autonomy and uniformity in the application of EU law. According to the TEU, Poland cannot trust on its constitution to avoid respecting common values, specified as the independency of the judiciary.
Importantly, the TEU found that the TK did not meet the requirements of an independent and impartial court established by the Act. The reason is serious irregularities in the appointment of 3 alleged double judges and the president of TK Speech about the persons elected by the Law and Justices to the positions taken in 2015 and about Julia Przyłębska, who headed the Constitutional Tribunal in 2016.
This ruling has already received many comments from politicians. Representatives of the ruling camp say that the TK should be rebuilt as shortly as possible. However, the TK itself reacted rather differently to the decision of the TEU. He acknowledged in his message that the EU Court could not justice the Polish Constitution, and that its Thursday decision was taken outside the competence and has no influence on the functioning of the Polish courts.
Threat of millions of penalties
Prof. Piotr Uzabło from the University of Gdańsk disagrees with this position.
– specified a comment could be expected, given the current composition of the Constitutional Tribunal and the position of president Bogdan Święczkowski. However, it has no meaning greater than publicistic. It is rather the other of what TK claims. Poland must comply with the TEU ruling and there is no uncertainty about it. Moreover, if we do not do so, in the long word we can anticipate advanced fines – explains Prof. Ułobło.
As he points out, the decision of the TEU should primarily consequence in the removal of persons who sit there in an unauthorised manner. We are talking about alleged double judges, or Jarosław Wyrembaku and Justyna Piskorski.
Prof. Worry sees 3 possible paths leading to the implementation of Thursday's TEU judgment. "In this case, appropriate legislative changes are a natural solution, which will enable the Polish Constitutional Tribunal to be healed. It is reasonable to consider specified a regulation so that the judges of the TK take a vow before the Sejm, not the President. This would avoid any obstruction of the appointment of judges by the head of state – the constitutionalist points out.
It reserves that it is improbable to make appropriate amendments to the Act in order to comply with the judgement of the TEU, as the president will not let it. This can be demonstrated by the destiny of the improvement of the Constitutional Tribunal passed a year ago. The rules that were intended to lead to staff changes in the grandstand were blocked by the president and sent to control the TK. This, in turn, declared the improvement unconstitutional.
Sentences to the basket?
According to Professor, they cooled down to a real reconstruction of the tribunal may besides lead to a complement to its composition. The cast of the CCC is shrinking and at the minute only 9 people are sitting in it, and six seats are vacant. – It is worth that the parliament yet fulfills its work and elects judges to be vacant positions. The failure to plant a constitutional body is an crucial legal defect, says the expert.
It besides mentions a 3rd way to implement the TEU judgment. – It is worth considering introducing legally elected judges to the tribunal in 2016. I presume president Charles Nawrocki won't take his oath from them. It is then possible to effort to take a notarial oath and to send specified an act to the president – explains Prof. Ułobło. It states that it is simply a force variant that can lead to even greater chaos.
Dr. Marcin Krzemiński of the Jagiellonian University agrees. "This script is possible and I imagine that it is possible to apply by analogy the rules on making declarations of will erstwhile swearing on the judges of the Constitutional Tribunal. However, I am convinced that the current president of the Constitutional Tribunal would not let the sworn judges to be judged in this way," the constitutionalist says. He stresses that the problem of alleged double judges can shortly be resolved on its own, as they end their word of office in 2026 and 2027. However, as Dr. Krzemiński says, deep reform, including a revision of the constitution, is essential for a real reconstruction of the Constitutional function of the Constitutional Tribunal.
Another consequence of the judgement of the TEU is pointed out by Prof. Złodło. In his opinion, the Polish courts may not consider the decisions of the Constitutional Tribunal binding. The expert argues that the judgement of the TEU provides grounds for questioning the full jurisprudence of the TK since 2016.
These are hundreds of convictions. Most of these rulings are not political, but they have a crucial impact on the legal situation of individuals, specified as the issue of garage taxation. It would so be good to adopt a legislative solution which would let the sanitisation of certain decisions of the Constitutional Tribunal. However, there is no chance of specified improvement in the close future. The courts themselves should so decide on how to address the flaws of the decisions of the Constitutional Tribunal,” says Prof. Złodło.
Opinion for ‘Rzeczpospolita’
Sławomir Palka
Deputy Minister for Justice
The judgement of the Court of Justice of the EU means that a solution must be found that will let the Polish Constitutional Court to function properly, in accordance with EU and national law. We should work on specified a improvement as shortly as possible and conduct it in dialog with president Karol Nawrock. If we do not solve the problem relating to the Constitutional Tribunal, we will exposure our country to multimillion penalties. We besides have a very good chance to partially heal the tribunal by setting up fresh judges. As of Saturday, there will be six judges' vacancy in the TK. I believe that they should be filled, complementing the composition of the TK with lawyers who enjoy undisputed authority. Politicians should not go to court. The decision of the EU Court may besides affect the application of the judgments of the Constitutional Tribunal by courts. any decisions of the Constitutional Court, in peculiar those issued with the engagement of alleged double judges, may not be taken into account by Polish courts in the application of distributed constitutional control. This, unfortunately, can further exacerbate the chaos and legal uncertainty of citizens. Therefore, a major improvement is needed to guarantee that the TK works in accordance with Polish and EU standards.
