Polish opposition politician charged with defrauding travel funds from European Parliament

A Polish opposition politician and former deputy president of the European Parliament (EP) has been charged with alleged financial fraud committed while he was serving as a member of the EP.

Ryszard Czarnecki, who lost his seat as an MEP for the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party at the European elections in June this year, is accused of falsely reporting his residence to profit from reimbursements for travel expenses to Brussels.

According to investigators, this led to an unjustified financial gain of around €203,000 between 2009 and 2013. The politician rejects the accusations against him, which he says are being brought on “political orders”.

The investigation by Polish prosecutors into the misappropriation of funds was initiated following a notification by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) in 2020. The body questioned the validity of €100,000 reimbursed to Czarnecki for travel between 2009 and 2018, reported the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

In a statement published on Wednesday, the prosecutor’s office said that the charge relates to the “unfavourable disposition of property of a significant value in the total amount of €203,167, through the misrepresentation of documents drawn up and signed” between 2009 and 2013.

Czarnecki allegedly misled the EP when submitting his reimbursement claims, stating that he lived in Jasło in southeastern Poland. In reality, he was living in Warsaw, some 340 kilometres to the north and closer to Brussels.

He also allegedly misrepresented the types of vehicles he used for the travel. According to the investigators, he filed 243 such claims. If found guilty, he could face a jail sentence of up to 15 years.

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The former MEP did not admit to the charges and gave a brief explanation in which he denied having committed the fraud, said prosecutors.

They initially wanted to bring charges against him in February, but at the time he had legal immunity as an MEP. Prosecutors sent a request to the EP to lift the immunity. However, in June, Czarnecki failed to be re-elected, thus losing his immunity.

Speaking to broadcaster Polsat, Czarnecki said that he “categorically disagrees with these allegations”, which he said were the “execution of a political order by the prosecutor’s office”.

“Two years ago, I returned all the funds in question, so I am surprised that this topic is still debated. These irregularities [in expenses claims] were the fault of my assistants, but I take responsibility,” he added.

A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office handling the case told the Rzeczpospolita daily that Czarnecki had returned more than €104,000 but added that “repayment does not settle the matter”.

“It can at most have an impact on the sentence or on a possible obligation to make reparation. But it does not automatically cause depenalisation, meaning the person is no longer criminally responsible. These are two separate issues,” he said.

Czarnecki served as a member of the EP for 20 years. In 2014, he was named as one of the parliament’s deputy presidents. However, in 2018 he was dismissed from the position after calling a fellow Polish MEP a szmalcownik – a derogatory term for a Pole who blackmailed Jews or those hiding them during the Holocaust.

Main image credit: euranet_plus / flickr.com (under CC BY-SA 2.0)

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.