New Polish Members of the European Parliament Begin Official Roles
On Friday, Włodzimierz Karpiński formally received a mandate as a Member of the European Parliament, stepping in for Krzysztof Hetman, who had been elected to the Sejm. In parallel, Witold Pahl was also granted a mandate to replace Bartosz Arłukowicz, who is now serving in the Sejm. The European Parliament announced these developments in a formal statement.
According to the European Parliament, at its meeting on November 20, the body would acknowledge the election of two new Polish Members of the European Parliament, Włodzimierz Karpiński and Witold Pahl, who would hold seats as MEPs. They are expected to be officially recognized as Polish MEPs from Thursday, November 16.
Marshal of the Sejm Szymon Hołownia announced midweek that documents had been signed to inform three individuals of their priority status for accepting a mandate in the European Parliament.
Włodzimierz Karpiński, a former secretary of the Warsaw City Hall and a former minister in the PO-PSL government, had been released from prison after a period in custody linked to a waste management corruption case. He faced charges related to the awarding of waste management contracts in Warsaw.
European elections 2019
Karpiński stood as a candidate for the European Coalition in the 2019 European Parliament elections. He did not secure a seat at that time. The MEP who won the seat from that list was Krzysztof Hetman, who subsequently left the European Parliament to take a seat in the Polish Sejm earlier this year. Joanna Mucha would have joined the European Parliament under Hetman’s leadership, but she also became a Sejm member. The next eligible candidate would have been Riad Haidar, who passed away in May of that year. As a result, the mandate shifted to Włodzimierz Karpiński.
Under Electoral Law, the Marshal of the Sejm, based on information from the National Electoral Commission, informs the next candidate from the same list who received the next highest votes about their priority for a seat in the European Parliament to replace the outgoing member.
The acceptance of the mandate by the candidate must be declared within seven days of receiving the notification. Failing to submit the declaration within that window means giving up the priority to fill the seat.
The EP’s second mandate will be held by Witold Pahl, a former judge of the State Tribunal and former Vice President of Warsaw. He will assume the seat after Bartosz Arłukowicz, elected to the Sejm from the KO lists. In the 2019 elections, several candidates on that list performed well enough to be considered for the seat. Elżbieta Polak, a former Voivodeship Marshal, secured a Sejm seat in Lubuskie, as did Jarosław Rzepa, who joined Parliament as a member of the Third Way. Among Pahl’s possible contenders were Jolanta Fedak, a former Minister of Labor and Social Policy, who had passed away in 2020. In this sequence, Arłukowicz’s mandate went to Pahl.
This reshuffle follows the predictable pattern of parliamentary representation during Poland’s complex list-based electoral system, where the next eligible candidate on the party list takes the seat when a current member vacates it for a different parliamentary role.
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