Court of Justice (Grand Chamber) 15 July 2021, C-791/19 (European Commission v Republic of Poland.)

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The Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union held that the Republic of Poland failed to fulfil its obligations under the second subparagraph of Article 19(1) TEU by: (i) failing to guarantee the independence and impartiality of the Disciplinary Chamber (Izba Dyscyplinarna) of the Supreme Court (Sąd Najwyższy), which reviews disciplinary decisions against judges; (ii) permitting the content of judicial decisions to constitute a disciplinary offence under Article 107 § 1 of the Law on the organisation of the ordinary courts and Article 97 §§ 1 and 3 of the Law on the Supreme Court; (iii) conferring on the President of the Disciplinary Chamber uncircumscribed discretionary power to designate the territorially competent disciplinary tribunal, thereby failing to ensure adjudication by a tribunal 'established by law'; and (iv) failing to guarantee examination of disciplinary cases within a reasonable time and respect for the rights of defence of accused judges through Articles 112b § 5 (second sentence), 113a, and 115a § 3 of the Law on the organisation of the ordinary courts. The Court further declared that Poland infringed the second and third paragraphs of Article 267 TFEU by allowing the right of national courts to submit requests for a preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice to be restricted through the threat of disciplinary proceedings. Poland was ordered to bear its own costs and those of the Commission, including costs relating to interim relief proceedings.AI