This is not only a Polish issue, it is already an issue at the European level, said Patryk Wachowiec, a legal analyst from the Civic Development Forum, commenting on the visa scandal at the Ministry of Diplomacy. The TVN24 guest emphasized that “as a member of the European Union, we are obliged to act diligently in accordance with the Schengen Visa Code.” – I will not be surprised if, for example, proceedings by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office in our case appear in the near future – he added.
There are further resignations due to the visa scandal. On Friday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after dismissing Deputy Minister Piotr Wawrzyk, removed Jakub Osajda, director of the Legal and Compliance Management Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from his position. The ministry also issued a statement in which: we can readthat Polish consulates will be subject to inspection and contracts with external companies that provided visa services will be terminated.
Find out more: Visa scandal. What do we know so far?
Although PiS has been regularly talking about the pseudo-scandal for several days, the prosecutor’s office announced charges of paid protection against seven people and about three people arrested. The opposition, commenting on the scandal, emphasizes that it was not just a visa trade, but a trade in Polish security.
Wachowiec: This is not just a Polish issue, it is already a European issue
The National Prosecutor’s Office announced on Friday that its investigation into the visa scandal concerns “exactly 268 approved applications for expediting visa issuance.” “The National Prosecutor’s Office appeals not to reproduce false information about the scale of this practice,” it added.
The case was commented on TVN24 by Patryk Wachowiec, a legal analyst from the Civic Development Forum. – These announcements from the prosecutor’s office that we have been hearing for several days, that there are two hundred and several dozen cases being investigated by investigators, do not necessarily show the scale of the entire procedure. Documents that have been revealed in the media in recent days show that this scale is much larger, he said.
– And this is not just a Polish issue, it is already an issue at the European level. We as member of the European Union we are committed to acting diligently in accordance with the Schengen Visa Code. And the way each Member State behaves, the way it issues these visas, is to build trust in other countries, that procedures are followed in our country, and that people from third countries are checked, he said.
Patryk WachowiecTVN24
– And I won’t be surprised if, for example, proceedings by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office in our case appear in the near future, because it simply affects the entire European Union system or the Schengen system – he added.
Wachowiec: this is another erosion of trust in the Polish state on the European arena
The TVN24 guest was asked about the far-reaching effects of this scandal. – Another erosion of trust in the Polish state on the European arena – he replied. – We have problems with the rule of law, which leads to problems with the European arrest warrant, family matters, and economic matters. We have problems with the prosecutor’s office, our investigators do not want to cooperate with the European Prosecutor’s Office – he added.
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– We have problems with OLAF (the EU office tracking the embezzlement of money from the European Union – ed.), there are cases of unreliable spending of EU funds. And this visa issue is another element of the erosion of our position in the European Union, he added.
Wachowiec stated that “the most important thing is to obtain information about who failed and who neglected the supervision of these services.” – Let us remember that this is happening in the specific context of the election campaign. And during the election campaign, citizens should have full knowledge of how the state works, how state affairs are going, who is failing and who is doing well, he said.
Main photo source: TVN24