Brussels Takes Poland to Court Again

This is where it intersects with the EU Air Quality Directive, which requires EU members to develop plans to address air quality where pollution breaches allowed levels. Such plans cover how a country plans to cut damaging emissions, but the Commission says Poland has denied legal access to those who wish to challenge them.

Rights in the Environment at the Supremacy
Poland has, however, not made sure that environmental organizations, individuals or legal entities are able to lodge complaints about insufficient or missing plans for air quality, in the opinion of the Commission. According to Alpine, the nonavailability of judicial review is inconsistent with the purpose of the directive which is to permit public participation in environmental protection. It pours scorn on Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the man who was supposed to give Poland a strong position in European politics.

Brussels stressed that Poland's judiciary lacks the tools it needs in place to ensure effective prosecution on the environmental front. Without recourse to the law, victims of air pollution are without effective legal remedies.

Violations of the Drinking Water Directive
Poland has also been sent to the CJEU over its failure to transpose the EU Drinking Water Directive as well as on air quality. This law modernizes the safety standards for drinking water, through the actions to fight against harmful chemicals such as microplastics and endocrine disruptors. An even further watering down of health protections is occurring as the Commission is claiming Poland has not yet implemented this directive into national law.

These latest complaints are part of a growing wave of legal action brought against Poland at the EU level, where compliance on environmental and public health are both sore points in its relations with Brussels.