Poland had a strong chance that the headquarters of the European Customs Agency would be established in the country. As PiS MEP Piotr Müller wrote on X, Polish MEPs across political divides joined forces to advocate for hosting the ECA headquarters. “This was a strong candidacy: due to Poland’s location, its experience in customs control, and the fact that we are one of the few countries with only one EU agency. All the greater, then, is the disappointment in how Donald Tusk’s government lost this case,” the politician emphasized.
Lille in France has been selected as the seat of the EU Customs Authority (EUCA), the Cypriot presidency of the Council of the European Union announced. The winning city made the shortlist together with Rome. Earlier, both cities had defeated Warsaw in the vote, with the Polish capital finishing in third place.
PiS MEP Piotr Müller commented on the opportunity lost by Warsaw:
“Across political divisions in the European Parliament, we committed ourselves to supporting Warsaw’s candidacy. I coordinated the backing of the PiS delegation in the IMCO Committee. It was a strong candidacy: due to location, Poland’s experience in customs control, and the fact that we are among the few countries with only one EU agency. All the greater, then, is the disappointment in how Donald Tusk’s government lost this case. The selection procedure was conducted in two stages. First, the Parliament and the EU Council each chose two candidates through multi-round voting. Then a joint meeting was to take place with a final decision,”
the politician wrote on X.
As he explained, however, there was a crucial rule: if a candidate appeared on both the Parliament’s and the Council’s lists, it would automatically win.
“At the negotiation stage, it was already clear that Warsaw’s main rival was Lille (France). The forecasts were unambiguous; Lille had a strong chance of a ‘double nomination.’ Therefore, the task was clear: Warsaw also had to appear in both recommendations,” he added.
“Voting in Parliament initially went according to plan. After several rounds, Warsaw was in the lead. The situation changed dramatically when information came from the Council: the Polish bid was eliminated in the third, decisive round, just to be replaced by Lille and Rome. The Polish government failed to secure a majority for Warsaw. At that point, everything was already decided. Even if Warsaw had won in Parliament, as all indications suggested, Lille would still have automatically become the overall winner of the procedure,”
the politician stressed.
He added that this constitutes an outright political failure of Donald Tusk’s government:
“Prime Minister Donald Tusk failed to deliver on this matter in the Council. It turned out that the supposedly influential Tusk was outmaneuvered once again. Do you remember the Prime Minister’s recent video of back-slapping and high-fives? One can record trivial TikToks, one can talk about Poland’s return to the core group of states, but in moments like these, only one thing matters: the ability to build real coalitions and get things done. Today, once again, Prime Minister Tusk lacked those abilities. It is all the more regrettable given the efforts of many people, MPs, and officials, who worked on this candidacy. Will Donald Tusk hide behind others, or will he take political responsibility?”
Piotr Müller asks.