Marek Sowa, a KO MP and head of the committee probing the visa scandal, set out the panel’s plan to forward eleven notices to the prosecutor’s office, charging a range of individuals with suspected crimes and to file a complaint about delays in the case handling by the Lublin Public Prosecutor’s Office. The aim is to pursue accountability across multiple officials tied to the visa process and related decisions.
Next week the committee chair is expected to present a draft report detailing the inquiry’s activities. The document is about 340 pages long with appendices. The panel conducted interviews with 37 witnesses and secured assessments from two experts. There were 40 committee sessions and more than 110 hours of hearings, and the inquiry collected hundreds of files from the Public Prosecutor’s Office and other offices.
The commission plans eleven notices to the Public Prosecution Service and one complaint to the National Prosecution Service about delays in the procedure handled by the Organized Crime Department at Lublin’s Railway Station. That department is examining allegations of protection payments connected to fast-tracking visa procedures. The named individuals include former deputy minister Piotr Wawrzyk and his colleague Edgar Kobos.
Three notices will address irregularities within the Poland Business Harbour program. The filings will name former prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki, former development minister Jadwiga Emilewicz, and former GovTech envoy Justyna Orłowska.
The Poland Business Harbour program offered a simplified visa track for firms, startups, and IT specialists without a work permit, and it was suspended at the end of January.
Who else does Sowa want to report to the public prosecutor’s office?
Four notices concern gaps in the Foreign Ministry’s supervision of visa issuance and potential losses to the state budget from renting spaces for the Visa Decision Center in Łódź and the Consular Information Center in Kielce, tied to possible assistance in arranging visas, speeding up, or bypassing procedures for associates of the Wawrzyk case. The matters involve Zbigniew Rau, former MFA head; Maciej Karasiński, former MFA director general; and senior MFA officials cited by the inquiry, including Beata Brzywczy.
The panel is also set to report possible crimes by former deputy agriculture minister Lech Kołakowski and the director of his parliamentary office, Maciej Lisowski. The inquiry indicates Kołakowski influenced visa decisions for individuals whose work permits were arranged by Lisowski, who leased parliamentary office space for fifty zlotys per month. Lisowski handled Kołakowski’s parliamentary affairs.
Additional notices target former interior minister Mariusz Kamiński and former CBA head Andrzej Stróżny.
The issues involve delays or inaction after credible information about criminal proceedings at the Foreign Ministry concerning money for visas. The information surfaced in July 2022, and despite clear awareness, no investigative steps or analytic work began until February 2023.
Sowa stated.
“Each of these conclusions is an accusation.”
The committee is reported to be formulating a number of summary conclusions in the draft final report.
Sowa argued that many conclusions cast the state under the administration in power in a critical light. Poland had a comparatively permissive visa regime among European states, making visa access relatively easy and turning the country into a gateway to the European Union.
He noted that over four years Poland accounted for a large share of EU work visas. In many cases, the recipients did not intend to settle in Poland; they used the accessible visa system to move on to other EU destinations.
Committee members have until December 3 to submit amendments to the draft report. The committee will then debate the format of the report and vote on the amendments on December 3. MPs can submit dissenting opinions on the report until December 6. After this date, the report will be sent to the Chairman of the Sejm, Szymon Hołownia, who will decide on the date for presenting the report at the plenary meeting of the Sejm.
Observers note that in April this year Sowa attended a committee meeting where Kamiński, former head of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration, was questioned. Kamiński challenged the committee’s leadership and described the ministry’s activities through 2023 in response to the first reports of visa irregularities. Many of those whom Sowa intends to confront had shown the committee that the visa issue was exaggerated by both the opposition and the current majority. It remains to be seen who will later address the stories about long lines at consulates.
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