Hungarian ambassador not welcome at event launching Poland's EU presidency

Poland will not welcome Hungarian Ambassador István Íjgyártó to the opening event of the Polish EU Presidency, Polish Deputy Minister for European Affairs Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka announced on Friday.

An article published by the Polish news portal Onet.pl on Friday morning revealed that because the Hungarian government has recently granted political asylum to Marcin Romanowski, the deputy justice minister of the former Polish government, the Hungarian ambassador to Warsaw is not welcome at the opening ceremony of the Polish EU Presidency set to be held on Friday evening. Following the publication of an interview with her, Sobkowiak-Czarnecka also confirmed the news to Polish TV channel TVP Info.

Sobkowiak-Czarnecka had previously said that EU member states would be represented at the opening ceremony by their ambassadors. The invitation was also sent to Hungary, but in a diplomatic note sent to the Hungarian ambassador in Warsaw, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski wrote that Íjgyártó was "not welcome" at the event.

“There are two terms competing with each other to describe the decision of the Polish Foreign Minister: pathetic and childish”

– this was the reaction of Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó to the Polish Foreign Minister's decision, according to 24.hu. The newspaper claims that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was also not invited to the opening event of the Polish EU Presidency.

Poland formally took over the EU presidency from Hungary on 1 January. The already deteriorating Polish-Hungarian relations are likely to worsen further due to the political asylum granted by Hungary to Romanowski, against whom Poland has issued an international arrest warrant. However, it would appear that there's no reason for the Polish authorities to expect Hungary to extradite Marcin Romanowski, who is trying to avoid facing the charges brought against him. We wrote in more detail on the former Polish deputy justice minister here.

His personal fate is probably going to have a profound impact on the relationship between the Polish and Hungarian governments, and Warsaw has already summoned the Hungarian ambassador on the matter. Many in Poland are not ruling out the possibility of more politicians from within the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, which had a good relationship with Fidesz during its eight-year rule, fleeing to Hungary.

According to the Polish National Prosecutor's Office, Marcin Romanowski is accused of 11 criminal offences, including participation in an organised criminal group and the misuse of public funds.