Polish MEP Radoslaw Sikorski sent an open letter to Dutch newspaper NRC blasting a report it ran about regular payments the lawmaker received from the United Arab Emirates for acting as an adviser and allegedly undeclared paid luxury trips to Dubai.
“It is unfair to state that I do not declare my missions. I have always declared everything — as required — on the relevant website of the European Parliament,” the lawmaker from the EPP group said in a letter addressed to the editor of the publication on Thursday.
It was a reaction to an investigation about his ties to the United Arab Emirates published on Wednesday, according to which Sikorski traveled to the United Arab Emirates regularly for a “free stay in luxury resorts” and received €93,000 annually from the Gulf state for his role on the advisory board of the Sir Bani Yas Forum since 2017.
“In addition to his salary as an MEP, of a net €7,646 per month, he receives an additional $100,000 (€93,000) annually from the Emirates for advising on the conference,” NRC stated.
But the lawmaker said in his letter, published on Twitter, that these “extra-parliamentary activities” are listed in his declaration of financial interests, submitted to the Polish parliament.
Moreover, he said that the Sir Bani Yas Forum is the “most reputable conference on the Middle East,” mentioning fellow members of the advisory board such as “a former prime minister of Australia and a former foreign secretary of the United Kingdom,” and also pointing out that attendees of the 2022 forum included the United States special presidential envoy for climate, John Kerry, and EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell.
Sikorski said it was “incorrect to link the prestigious role” and his position as a member of the European Parliament.
Sikorski’s most recent filing with the Polish parliament directly acknowledges his role with the Sir Bani Yas Forum and the $100,000 compensation. His European Parliament disclosure, updated in 2021, said he earns up to €10,000 gross each month for his activities with Sikorski Global, his consulting service. That work includes various advisory boards, including Sir Bani Yas, according to the filing.
Sikorski notes his participation in the forum over two days in a list of meetings on the European Parliament’s website, without detailing individual discussions; his entries for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and the Munich Security Conference are similar. He does not, however, include any of those gatherings in a set of declarations about expenses for events organized by third parties. Sikorski told NRC that he wasn’t required to provide details on the Emirates trip because “it was part of my paid outside activities.”
Sikorski’s office declined to comment beyond his letter posted to Twitter.
“Direct influence cannot be demonstrated,” acknowledges the NRC report, even as its analysis found that Sikorski “takes positions that are favorable to the Emirates and its closest ally Saudi Arabia — usually in line with those of his Christian Democratic group.”
The newspaper cited his support for an attempt to soften a resolution on Saudi death sentences, while he also voted against a European Parliament resolution calling on member states to stop supplying weapons to Saudi Arabia after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2020.
Sikorski argued that his voting behavior is “exactly in line with the voting recommendations of my political group, the EPP group in the European Parliament.”
He added, “I hope you appreciate I have complied with all the national and European rules of transparency.”
Measures to prevent conflicts of interest in the Parliament are subject to little enforcement, and the issue of side jobs has been identified as a point of concern for political integrity.
The institution is currently working on reforming its transparency rules, with an emphasis on shining a brighter light on foreign influence. A probe has ensnared a now-former vice president of the European Parliament, Eva Kaili, and an ex-MEP who helmed the body’s human rights panel, both Social Democrats. According to the Belgian judiciary, they are accused of participating in a network of corruption and undue influence by Moroccan and Qatari interests.
