“Why did those selected by the government receive funds not for business activity, but essentially for consumption? After all, after 12 months, one could liquidate what was purchased with the EU grant. Some received enormous sums, hundreds of thousands or even millions of zlotys, because they knew the criteria and were admitted to this confidential distribution, while others were not. This undermines all the principles of EU programs, which are supposed to ensure strict transparency,” said long-serving MEP and former Vice-President of the European Parliament Jacek Saryusz-Wolski in an interview with Gazeta Polska.
In his conversation with Grzegorz Wszołek, Saryusz-Wolski harshly criticized those in power, who, in his view, bear full responsibility for the scandal. He argues that the KPO funds for the HoReCa sector were never intended to rebuild the economy. “What we are dealing with here is pure handouts of enormous sums of money, in a scheme directed, among others, to politically connected companies. Many of these entities were acquired simply because they had a drop in revenue during COVID-19 five years ago. And only for the purpose of meeting the criteria for obtaining KPO funds, which today are, in fact, in completely different hands, without any connection to the pandemic,” said the MEP. He stressed that key information about the grants was not publicly available and that the criteria for awarding them were unclear and conducive to corruption.
The former Vice-President of the European Parliament also rejects accusations from Donald Tusk’s government, which blames its predecessors from Law and Justice (PiS) for the haste and chaos in spending the funds. “That is one big lie, apart from the fact that the money for HoReCa is plainly handouts, not post-COVID assistance. The falsehood from Tusk’s coalition lies in the claim that the delay was the result of their predecessors’ actions. In reality, the postponement of EU fund disbursement was carried out by the European Commission at the request and under the pressure of what was then the opposition, today’s ruling coalition,” he stated.
In the interview, Saryusz-Wolski warns that the HoReCa scandal is only part of a much larger and more dangerous phenomenon. He views the National Recovery Plan (KPO) as an instrument of systemic transformation of the European Union toward a superstate, limiting the sovereignty of its member states:
“The KPO, in my opinion, is a trap; we are repaying something that is tied up and impossible to use in full, and on top of that, we will suffer from the consequences of debt repayment. […] Programs such as the KPO, and tomorrow the defense loan, are elements of building a European superstate and the dominance of the European Commission over the member states. All of this is happening outside the framework of the treaties.”
Who personally bears responsibility for the scandal with the HoReCa funds? Can the misappropriated money be recovered, and what consequences might Poland face from Brussels? Read the full interview with Jacek Saryusz-Wolski in the latest issue of Gazeta Polska.