Warsaw

European Union officials on Nov. 10 accused Belarus of state-sponsored "trafficking" of human lives by luring desperate migrants to the Polish border, the edge of the EU, where many are now stuck in makeshift camps in freezing weather.

The fine is the latest development in an ongoing conflict between Warsaw and Brussels over rule of law, which reached a critical moment earlier this month, when the politically controlled Polish Constitutional Tribunal ruled that some articles in EU Treaties were not compatible with the Polish Constitution.

Politicians in Poland reacted to the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union, which ordered Warsaw to pay a fine of one million euros a day until the dissolution of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court, reports the news portal Onet.

It was his girlfriend's idea. Valentine's Day was coming up and she wanted to see Fifty Shades Darker over the weekend. Koscielnik was not so keen. His exams were coming up and he would rather have been revising. He was 20 years old, a student at a technical college in his hometown of Oswiecim, in southern Poland.

Although the next wave of the pandemic was gaining momentum in September, the trips of Bulgarians abroad were 579.2 thousand, or 4.2% more than those registered in September 2020, according to NSI data.

"But the circle was closing in on me and my friends," Belkevich tells BIRN. "The KGB started coming to our houses to checkup on us. Then one day, I got a notification from the police telling me to show up at the station for interrogation that Friday. That's the moment I realised it was time to go."

Polish authorities do not believe that the resolution adopted by the European Parliament (EP) on Thursday, which expresses dissatisfaction with Warsaw's actions, which MEPs say is trying to undermine the rule of European law, is binding. This was announced on Friday on Polish Radio by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic Piotr Wawczyk.

European leaders lined up sharply to criticize Warsaw on Thursday for challenging the EU's legal basis, but Poland's prime minister said he would not succumb to "blackmail" before joining the 27-nation bloc's summit, reports Reuters.

The heightened tension between Brussels and Warsaw followed the Polish Constitutional Tribunal's ruling on October 7 that key articles of EU Treaties were incompatible with the Polish constitution.

Several thousand people protested under the slogan "Stop torture at the border".
The protesters accused the Polish authorities of cruel behavior due to pushing migrants back and the introduction of a state of emergency at the border, which prevents human rights activists and humanitarian organizations from helping migrants.