EU takes Poland to court amid fears for bloc’s legal order

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, centre, speaks with European Commissioner for Budget Johannes Hahn, left, and European Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni during a meeting of the College of Commissioners at EU headquarters in Brussels (Virginia Mayo/AP)

The European Union has launched legal action against Poland over recent decisions by one of the country’s top courts that have raised troubling questions about the 27-nation bloc’s legal order.

In October, Poland’s constitutional court ruled that Polish laws have supremacy over those of the EU in areas where they conflict. When countries join the EU, as Poland did in 2004, they must bring their laws into line with the bloc’s regulations. The European Court of Justice is supreme arbiter of those rules.