Professor Laurent Pech

Professor Laurent Pech, the dean of UCD Sutherland School of Law, launched legal proceedings in September 2024 after the European Commission “persistently refused to reply” to a request for documents supporting its decision to abandon proceedings against Poland under Article 7(1) of the Treaty on European Union (TEU).

The Commission said in May 2024 that it no longer believed there was a “clear risk of a serious breach of the rule of law in Poland”.

Writing on LinkedIn, Professor Pech explained that he takes the view that the EU proceedings were “prematurely closed” with little transparency.

The requested documents were eventually provided to the professor after he lodged the annulment application — but the Commission then opened a battle over costs, which has now been resolved in his favour.

He wrote: “It would just better for everyone — not to forget the EU’s authority and reputation — to promptly and fully comply with EU transparency obligations [especially] when it comes to issues relating to systemic threat to the fundamental values on which the EU and its [member states] are supposed to be based and which define — according to the ECJ — the very identity of the EU as a legal order common to those states.”

Professor Pech’s legal team was Carsten Zatschler SC and Philip Lee solicitors Maeve Delargy and Anne Bateman.