EU Top Court Rejects Poland's Bid to Overturn Seven Major Climate Laws
Poland has failed to overturn seven major European Union (EU) climate laws. On Thursday the bloc's top court rejected the challenges to the laws. The measures challenged include the 2035 target for zero-emission cars and carbon pricing for heating and transport.
The rulings by the Court of Justice of the EU uphold key parts of the bloc's Green Deal. At the same time, they bring to a close the legal campaign launched by Poland's previous nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) government.
Notably, Prime Minister Donald Tusk's pro-EU administration kept that legal campaign alive by deciding not to withdraw the lawsuits.
Poland argued that the laws would fundamentally reshape its coal-dependent energy system and therefore required unanimous approval by EU governments, which would effectively have given Poland a veto.
The court rejected that argument. It ruled that the measures could be adopted by a qualified majority of member countries. The judges also dismissed the challenges to the bloc's carbon border tax, energy efficiency rules and national emissions reduction targets.
The history of the lawsuits is also long. Six lawsuits were filed in July and August 2023, while PiS was in power. The seventh was lodged on 14 December, a day after Tusk took office with a promise to repair Warsaw's relations with Brussels. His government reviewed the cases but decided not to withdraw them.
The court's decisions are final. But Tusk's Poland is still among the countries pushing to weaken parts of the EU's climate legislation, including by seeking to delay the new carbon market for heating and transport, known as ETS2.
