EU court tells Poland to pay $1.2M a day in judicial dispute

By RAF CASERT
Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s top court has fined Poland $1.2 million a day to prevent what it called “serious and irreparable harm” to the EU’s legal order and values. The European Court of Justice imposed the penalty after a weeklong war of words in Poland’s standoff with the EU over judicial independence. Poland told the EU to stay out of its judicial affairs. But other EU nations insisted that Warsaw can’t keep receiving huge EU subsidies while disregarding the bloc’s democratic principles. The EU’s executive commission requested the penalty until Poland’s nationalist government improved the functioning of the Polish Supreme Court and suspends laws deemed to undermine the judiciary.