(Bloomberg) -- Poland’s top court ruled that the country’s constitution overrides some European Union laws, escalating a conflict over democratic standards that endangers the government’s ability to access 36 billion euros ($42 billion) in pandemic aid.

The judgment could be used by Poland’s government to bypass common rules that underpin the functioning of the 27-nation bloc and follows years of increasingly bitter disputes over the independence of courts, media freedom and LGBTQ rights.

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