Poland’s justice minister on Thursday said his country should not pay fines imposed by the European Union’s top court over a controversial judicial reform and another tied to Warsaw’s failure to shut a massive coal mine. Warsaw and Brussels have been at loggerheads for years over disputed judicial reforms pushed through by the Law and Justice (PiS) government. Brussels believes the reforms hamper democratic freedom, but Poland says they are needed to root out corruption among judges. “Whether in the case of unlawful penalties concerning the Turow (coal mine) or in the case of the penalty for changes in the judicial system, Poland cannot and should not pay a single zloty,” Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro told reporters, adding that Poland “must not succumb to lawlessness”. His comments come a day after the EU’s top court ordered Warsaw to pay one million euros a day for not suspending a controversial “disciplinary chamber” at the heart of a bitter feud between Warsaw and Brussels.