The European Parliament has launched a lawsuit against the European Commission for perceived delays in applying a mechanism linking EU funds to rule of law in member states.
"As requested in parliamentary resolutions, our legal service has brought an action against the European Commission for failure to apply the Conditionality Regulation to the Court of Justice today," parliamentary speaker David Sassoli said in a statement.
The parliament's lawsuit comes as the Commission and Poland are locked in a struggle over Warsaw's adherence to EU legal and democratic norms.
Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has said the EU executive will use "all instruments at our disposal" to force Poland to backtrack on decisions seen as rolling back democratic standards, particularly Warsaw's moves seen as undermining judicial independence.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki last week addressed the European Parliament to defend his government's stance, accusing the Commission of "blackmail" and trampling member states' sovereignty.
The issue dominated an EU summit at the end of last week during which Germany and France tried to ease tensions by essentially kicking the issue down the road to the next summit in December.
The Commission meanwhile is holding back €36bn in coronavirus recovery grants and loans to Poland until it bends on the judicial row.
It is also gathering evidence for further possible future action against Poland, including activating the "conditionality" mechanism referred to by Mr Sassoli.
While MEPs are vocal in wanting that mechanism triggered earlier, Ms von der Leyen's Commission says it has to move painstakingly to ensure it would prevail against a certain challenge before the European Court of Justice.
Mr Sassoli indicated the parliament would keep holding the Commission's feet to the fire.
"We expect the European Commission to act in a consistent manner and live up to what President von der Leyen stated during our last plenary discussion on this subject," he said.
"Words have to be turned into deeds."
Read more: Why Poland threatens EU legal order
