The Polish lawmaker has caught the attention of the daily amid a scandal rocking the European Parliament, involving corruption, money laundering and organised crime allegations.
Claims have surfaced that several MEPs from Belgium, Italy and Greece were approached by the governments of Qatar, Morocco and Mauritania for lobbying purposes. Two MEPs, Italian Andrea Cozzolino and Belgian Marc Tarabella, have been arrested in connection with the case.
According to NCR, Sikorski forged close ties with the United Arab Emirates, through which he frequently stayed in luxury resorts for free and, since 2017, has received $100,000 annually for being on the advisory board of the Sir Bani Yas Forum and advising on the conference.
The newspaper also wrote that, in defiance of the duty of MEPs, Sikorski failed to disclose to the European Parliament that his trip to the UAE for a conference at the end of last year was fully funded by the Gulf country.
It was further reported by the newspaper that “an analysis of Sikorski’s voting results conducted by NCR shows that he holds a position favourable to the Emirates and their close ally Saudi Arabia,” noting that his voting usually aligns with the stance of his political group, the European People’s Party (EPP).
Sikorski has been reportedly critical of Iran, an enemy of the Emirates, meanwhile being more lenient towards the repressive regimes of the UAE and Saudi Arabia, which was visible when he voted against arms deliveries to Saudi Arabia from EU member states following the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident journalist who was killed by agents of the Saudi government at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
The MEP also opposed a move to take action against the UAE regarding the detainment of a blogger critical of the authorities and backed an effort to soften a resolution on the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, as noted by NCR.
Sikorski answers to the criticism
In response to the claims, Sikorski published an open letter to the editor of the newspaper, in which he emphasised that “my extra-parliamentary activities are listed in my declaration of financial interests, submitted to the European Parliament and, in more detail, to the Polish Parliament.”
“I was asked to join the Advisory Board of the Sir Bani Yas Forum in 2017 in my capacity as Senior Fellow at the Centre of European Studies at Harvard University, two years before being elected to the European Parliament,” Sikorski wrote.
He stresses that all his voting regarding the UAE and Saudi Arabia was “exactly in line with the voting recommendations of my political group, the EPP group in the European Parliament.”
Controversies around Sikorski's comments and actions
Sikorski is one of the most influential Polish politicians abroad. Both he and his wife, prominent journalist Anne Applebaum, have attended conferences organised by the Bilderberg Group, an invitation-only conference gathering political leaders, finance, academia, and the media from Europe and North America.
The Bilderberg meetings have been criticized for their secretive nature and the influence their attendees are said to wield, giving rise to numerous conspiracy theories.
In September, Sikorski was lambasted for publishing a tweet with a picture of the damaged Nord Stream pipeline, accompanied by the words “Thank You, USA.” In the wake of the all-round disapproval, he later deleted the post.
He also met with critical response for his remark in an interview with a private radio broadcaster, Radio Zet, that the ruling party thought about partitions of Ukraine, saying that “[the government] had a moment of hesitation in the first 10 days of the war.”
In 2020, Sikorski won a defamation case against Polish ruling party leader Jarosław Kaczyński, who was ordered to publish an apology to the former foreign minister.
The court subsequently ruled that Kaczyński must pay almost €150,000 to cover the costs of publishing an apology, as he had failed to apologise for accusing Sikorski of “diplomatic treason”
However, Sikorski lent a hand to the ruling party’s leader and accepted the apology in the form of a donation of some €10,000 to the armed forces of Ukraine.
Sikorski, widely known for his sharp tongue and, at times, blunt honesty, is one of the key figures in the ranks of the Polish major opposition grouping, Civic Platform.
(pjm)
Source: Politico, PAP, TVN24, Twitter, Radio Zet