Poland to take Hungary to EU court over asylum for opposition politician

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Poland intends to launch legal action against Hungary over its decision to grant asylum to an opposition politician, Marcin Romanowski, who is wanted on criminal charges, says a Polish deputy foreign minister.

“We are determined to take Hungary to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU),” Andrzej Szejna told broadcaster Radio Zet this week.

He argues that “Hungary has clearly violated the principle of sincere cooperation” enshrined in the Treaty on the European Union, which requires member states to ensure compliance with European law “in full mutual respect” of one another.

Szejna said that Poland would make use of article 259 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which allows one member state to bring another before the CJEU if it believes the other member state had failed to fulfil its obligations.

Romanowski is wanted in Poland on 11 charges relating to his time as a deputy justice minister in the former Law and Justice (PiS) government, including accusations that he participated in an organised criminal group, used crime as a source of income, and abused his power. He could face up to 25 years in jail.

However, after a court approved a request from prosecutors for Romanowski to be placed in pretrial detention, he went into hiding, prompting the Polish authorities to issue first a national warrant for his arrest and then a European Arrest Warrant.

The politician subsequently surfaced in Hungary, whose ruling Fidesz party is an ally of PiS. He was then granted asylum there on the basis that he would not receive a fair trial in Poland.

Romanowski this week issued a set of five conditions under which he would be prepared to return to Poland and face justice. All of them call for the government to undo changes it has made to Poland’s justice system since taking power from PiS a year ago.

The situation has sparked a diplomatic dispute between the two countries’ governments, who were already often at loggerheads.

Poland’s foreign ministry presented a protest note to the Hungarian ambassador and called its ambassador to Warsaw for “indefinite consultations”, stressing that “there will be no Polish ambassador in Budapest” for the time being.

Last week, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk revealed that he had spoken to his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orbán, though without providing further details.

Speaking to Radio Zet, Szejna said that relations with Hungary are currently “difficult” after Budapest’s “unfriendly actions towards Poland”. He also called Hungary “pro-Russian”.

The minister warned that “Hungary has done itself great harm because the European Arrest Warrant is our common achievement, making it impossible for a criminal from one EU country to flee to another”.

“If you issue a European Arrest Warrant, that means something,” added Szejna. He said that, if a Hungarian court refuses to respect the warrant for Romanowski, “we will take further action”.

If Poland does decide to take Hungary to the CJEU over the issue, it must first file a claim to the European Commission, which then issues an opinion, after which the case can be taken to court. The entire legal process lasts on average two years, notes broadcaster RMF.

Szejna also dismissed Hungary and Romanowski’s “story that there is no rule of law in Poland” as a “baseless” claim made by PiS. The Polish government notes that it is, in fact, simply attempting to reverse rule-of-law violations made by PiS during its eight years in power.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: European Union

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.