Polish MEP defends earnings from UAE following Dutch media report

A Polish MEP and former government minister, Radosław Sikorski, has defended himself after a Dutch newspaper reported on his alleged $100,000 annual pay for sitting on the advisory board of a conference organised by the United Arab Emirates. It claimed that his voting record has been friendly towards UAE and its ally Saudi Arabia.

The findings, which come amid the ongoing “Qatargate” scandal relating to alleged corruption among members of the European Parliament, were first published today by leading Dutch daily NRC, and later by Polish online news website OKO.press.

They noted that Sikorski – who served as defence minister from 2005-7 and foreign minister from 2007-14 and is now a senior figure in Poland’s largest opposition party, the centrist Civic Platform (PO) – receives biannual “free stays at luxury resorts” in the UAE in addition to his pay as an advisor to the Sir Bani Yas forum.

The annual conference, which takes place behind closed doors, was set up by UAE a decade ago as a way of “conducting international diplomacy through soft power”, writes the newspaper. Other advisory board members include former Australian and Swedish prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Carl Bildt.

The newspaper notes that Sikorski did not inform the European Parliament that he attended last year’s forum at UAE’s expense, despite MEPs being obliged to report such trips. Sikorski told NRC that he did not have to make such a report because he attended not as an MEP but “as part of my paid outside activities”.

NRC also says that its “analysis of Sikorski’s voting record shows that he takes positions favourable to the Emirates and its staunchest ally Saudi Arabia”, though it added that this was also “mostly in line with the [votes] of the [European People’s Party, EPP] group” that PO is part of.

As examples, it pointed to the fact that Sikorski had supported opposition in the European Parliament to halting arms deliveries to countries involved in the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen and efforts to soften a resolution on death sentences in Saudi Arabia. In both cases he voted in line with EPP colleagues.

In response to NRC’s report, Sikorski issued a statement addressed to the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, René Moerland.

The MEP noted that all of his extra-parliamentary activities, including his role with the Sir Bani Yas Forum, are listed in his declaration of financial interests to the European Parliament, as required.

He added that the forum is “the most reputable conference on the Middle East”, with leading former politicians on its advisory board and last year’s event attended by US presidential envoy John Kerry and EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell.

Sikorski pointed out that he has been on the forum’s board since 2017- two years before he became an MEP – and that his voting record on issues relating to UAE and Saudi Arabia was “exactly in line with the voting recommendations of my political group”.

It is “therefore incorrect to link this prestigious role [with the forum] to my activities as a Member of the European Parliament” and “it is also unfair to state that I do not declare my missions…I am scrupulous in declaring my activities and meetings”.

Main image credit: J. Cieślikowska / MSZ (under CC BY-NC 2.0)

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.