The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) has asked Poland’s parliament to lift the immunity of a serving MP as part of a corruption probe into an EU-funded tram project in Silesia
EPPO Chief Prosecutor Laura Kovesi sent the request on May 5 without naming the lawmaker who has been accused of “suspected trading in influence”.
However media reports suggest it concerns Wojciech Król, the deputy chairman of Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s ruling Civic Coalition (KO) parliamentary group and head of the National Media Council, the body which appoints the management of public media.
The EPPO investigation centres on the modernisation of the tram network in the Upper Silesia metropolitan area, a grouping of 41 municipalities around the city of Katowice in southern Poland, a project which received 450 million Euro’s worth of EU funding.
Another official, who was detained last December and remains in custody, is accused of providing confidential information to help the firm obtain contracts as part of a system that also involved inflated costs and fictitious work.
“The evidence also showed that, on several occasions, financial benefits were given to a member of parliament,” added the EPPO.
Poland’s Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA) which has been working with the EPPO on the case has revealed that the total value of bribes transferred in the case amounted to around 640,000 Euro.
In December last year, the CBA detained four individuals suspected of involvement in corruption, with a further six arrested at the end of April, all detained at the EPPO’s behest.
It is the first time in history that the EPPO has issued a request for the lifting of immunity for a sitting Polish MP.
The Tusk Government’s spokesman Adam Szłapka made light of the case and called the EPPO request routine.
“This is a normal process, the result of Poland’s decision to join the EPPO. We need to get used to such cases,” he said, but did not confirm media reports that the case in question concerned a senior member of Tusk’s KO.
However, for an MP to be charged, a majority in Parliament must vote in favour of lifting their immunity. IN this term of parliament all the requests for the lifting of immunity thus far have concerned opposition members.
The EPPO was established in 2021 in order to investigate and prosecute crimes against the financial interests of the EU but under Poland’s last Conservative (PiS) government, Poland chose to remain outside of the body as that administration was suspicious that the EPPO would be used to attack the PiS administration, in a similar way that they felt they had been attacked by the EC and the ECJ.
This changed after the election of the present centre-left government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk and in March 2024 the country joined the EPPO.