Poland's constitutional court rejects parts of 2025 state budget

Poland's Constitutional Tribunal (TK) has found that the parts of the state budget for 2025 that significantly cut funding for two judicial bodies, the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS) and the TK itself, are unconstitutional.

The move – likely to be ignored by the government, which does not recognize the TK's legitimacy – marks the latest twist in the ongoing rule-of-law conflict between the ruling coalition and the TK, which remains filled with judges appointed under the former Law and Justice (PiS) government.

The 2025 budget was signed by PiS-aligned President Andrzej Duda in January . However, he also sent parts of the spending plans containing significant cuts in funding for the KRS and the TK to the TK for assessment.

This way, the tribunal was placed in the unusual position of having to issue a ruling on the constitutionality of cuts to its own budget.

Both in question are seen as being under the influence of PiS due to actions it undertook during its time in power institutions from 2015 to 2023. Both are also deemed illegitimate by the government, a position likewise held by many legal experts and confirmed by court rulings, including by the European Court of Justice .

The current government, led by Donald Tusk, has attempted to overhaul both the TK and KRS to make both bodies legitimate once again. However, Duda has refused to sign bills aiming to reform these institutions, instead sending them to the TK for assessment .

In the 2025 budget , the government's majority in parliament cut the amount of money granted to the KRS by 23% compared to what it had requested and the TK by 17%. It also cut the requested budget of the National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT), another body led by a PiS appointee, by 54%.

PiS ruled that those cuts violate two articles of the constitution: one guaranteeing that the Constitutional Tribunal judges be “provided with working conditions and remuneration corresponding to the dignity of the office and the scope of their duties”, and the other defining the separation of powers between the legislative, executive and judicial branches.

Now the Constitutional Tribunal has issued its decision of the financing cuts included in the 2025 budget, finding them unconstitutional. It argued that the Polish parliament “has made unprecedented reductions…in a way that makes it difficult or impossible for the constitutional organs of the state to perform their tasks.”

In a statement published on

But, added the tribunal, “in a democratic state under the rule of law, it is unthinkable for public authorities to refuse to perform a legally determined service.”

The Constitutional Tribunal has also formulated budgetary guarantees that the Legislature must meet when enacting the financial plans of state bodies. The financial plans included in the budget law must provide constitutional bodies with sufficient resources to carry out their duties so that they can meet their contractual financial obligations on time.

Meanwhile, any significant changes to financial plans should result from changes in the responsibilities or operational model of these bodies introduced in the constitution or through a relevant bill, and the bodies should be given time to adapt to new financial conditions.

“Constitutional bodies must have continuous funding from the state budget in order to be able to fulfill their constitutional and statutory duties and obligations efficiently and without interruption,” the TK added.

The Constitutional Tribunal demanded that the budget for 2025 be amended immediately to adjust it to the tribunal's decision. However, the ruling coalition is likely to ignore it, as it has done with other Constitutional Tribunal rulings up to this point, arguing they are invalid as the court is not legitimately formed.

Main image credit: Lukas Plewnia/Flickr (under CC BY-SA 2.0 )