EU: Poland fines in rule of law dispute now top $170 million

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN
Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Commission says the daily fines imposed on EU member country Poland for not complying with an order to suspend a disciplinary mechanism for judges have now piled up to more than 160 million euros. The EU and Poland have been at odds for years over issues linked to the respect of democratic standards and the separation of powers in the eastern country. Last year, the bloc’s top court fined Poland one million euros ($1.06 million) a day to prevent what it called “serious and irreparable harm” to the EU’s legal order and values. The EU’s executive commission had requested the penalty until the Polish government acts to improve the functioning of the Polish Supreme Court and suspends new laws deemed to undermine judicial independence.