Ryszard Czarnecki, a former Polish EU lawmaker and vice president of the European Parliament, was detained at Warsaw airport on Wednesday in connection with a private university scandal. Czarnecki, who represented the right-wing Law and Justice party (PiS), lost his MEP seat in June’s EU election. His arrest came shortly after a Polish prosecutor saddled him with fraud charges for racking up six-figure travel expenses during his time as an MEP. Czarnecki has dismissed the case as “lies and complete nonsense.” According to the Polish interior ministry, however, Czarnecki’s Wednesday arrest was related to a different case concerning Collegium Humanum,…
Author: Csongor Körömi
Belgian Foreign Minister and incoming EU Commissioner Hadja Lahbib has slammed Hungary’s plan to send buses of asylum seekers to Brussels. The announcement was made by Budapest several weeks ago but only caught the attention of the minister on Monday. Lahbib called it a “provocation that contradicts European obligations.” “Migration policy is a common challenge that must be tackled in an orderly fashion and with solidarity by all Member States,” Lahbib wrote on X. Belgium has nominated Lahbib as its pick for Ursula von der Leyen’s new European Commission. She is known for her tough stance on Budapest: During Belgium’s…
A consortium partly owned by the Hungarian government officially threatened the Spanish government with legal action on Friday over its decision to block a takeover bid for a Spanish train-maker. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s leftist government blocked the deal on “national security” grounds, notably potential Hungarian links to Russia, according to earlier Spanish media reports. The unprecedented veto is the latest symbol of how relations between Hungary and other European Union countries have deteriorated over charges that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government is pro-Russian. That has now drawn a furious response from the Hungarian consortium, Ganz-Mávag Europe, which confirmed Friday…
Intelligence on a possible threat of Russian sabotage action against Geilenkirchen NATO air base caused it to temporarily raise its security level last week, German press agency dpa reported Monday, citing German security sources. A foreign intelligence service gave “serious indication” of preparatory actions for a likely Russian act of sabotage against the NATO base, possibly involving the use of drones, the German newspaper Tagesspiegel reported. For most of Friday, the air base of the Western defense alliance in North Rhine-Westphalia instated the second-highest security level. Upon receiving the information, all non-essential personnel were sent home to minimize the potential…