Judgment of the Court (First Chamber) of 25 April 2024 – European Commission v Republic of Poland
(Case C-147/23) 1
(Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations – Article 258 TFEU – Protection of persons who report breaches of Union law – Directive (EU) 2019/1937 – Failure to transpose and notify the transposition measures – Article 260(3) TFEU – Application for the imposition of a lump sum and a daily penalty payment – Criteria for establishing the amount of the sanction – Automatic application of a coefficient for seriousness – Determination of the capacity to pay of the Member State – Demographic criterion)
Language of the case: Polish
Parties
Applicant: European Commission (represented by: J. Baquero Cruz and M. Owsiany-Hornung, acting as Agents)
Defendant: Republic of Poland (represented by: B. Majczyna, acting as Agent)
Operative part of the judgment
The Court:
Declares that, by failing, on expiry of the period laid down in the reasoned opinion of the European Commission of 15 July 2022, to adopt the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with Directive (EU) 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2019 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law and, therefore, by failing to communicate them to the Commission, the Republic of Poland has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 26(1) and (3) of that directive;
Declares that, by failing to adopt, when the Court examined the facts, the provisions necessary to transpose into its domestic law the provisions of Directive 2019/1937 and, therefore, failing to communicate those measures to the European Commission, the Republic of Poland persisted in its failure to fulfil its obligations;
Orders the Republic of Poland to pay the European Commission:
a lump sum in the amount of EUR 7 000 000;
in the event that the failure to fulfil obligations established in point 1 of the operative part were to persist on the date of delivery of this judgment, as from that date and until that Member State has put an end to that failure, a daily penalty payment in the amount of EUR 40 000;
Orders the Republic of Poland to bear its own costs and to pay those incurred by the European Commission.
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1 OJ C 155, 2.5.2023.