EU Parliament Sues European Commission for 'Inaction' on Rule of Law

This comes amid ongoing conflict between Belgium and Poland over the rule of law – and the European Commission looking into ways to slap financial sanctions on Poland over its controversial judiciary reforms.

The European Parliament has filed a lawsuit against the European Commission for a delay in applying a mechanism linking EU funds to rule of law in member states.

"As requested in parliamentary resolutions, our legal service has brought an action against the European Commission for failure to apply the Conditionality Regulation to the Court of Justice today (Friday)," parliamentary speaker David Sassoli said in a statement.

The @Europarl_EN's legal service just submitted the lawsuit against the European Commission for failure to apply the rule of law mechanism to the Court of Justice.

We now expect the @EU_Commission to act. Words have to be turned into deeds. https://t.co/FiCFnKQRhE

— David Sassoli (@EP_President) October 29, 2021

"The regulation, which was adopted last December, allows the EU to suspend payments from the EU budget to Member States in which the rule of law is under threat," the statement reads.

Earlier this week, the EU's highest court announced that Poland would face a record-high daily fine of €1 million for not complying with an EU court order to suspend the country's judicial disciplinary forum — the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court. Last month, Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal ruled that some of the decisions made by the EU high court were not in line with the Polish constitution.