Civic Coalition parliamentary club filed a request on Friday (October 21) a committee be launched to investigate state authorities' action taken with regards to the so-called wiretap scandal of 2014. The committee would look into the period between July 1, 2013, and October 20, 2022. Commenting on the motion filed by the opposition, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said he was in favour of lauching a committee or other mechanisms "to verify the ways that Russian influence was affecting the area of security and energy system".
Civic Coalition parliamentary club on Friday filed a motion at the hands of the Speaker of the Sejm Elżbieta Witek (PiS), requesting an investigative committee be launched to examine the validity, legality, and advisability of action taken by state organs and institutions to prevent and counteract influence of foreign special services on Poland's energy policy between July 1, 2013 and October 20, 2022.
The said committee would also investigate potential nonfeasance in terms of detecting said influence. The body would be composed of 11 MPs. The proponents would be represented by MP Marcin Kierwiński.
The committee would investigate action and nonfeasance on the part of government representatives (first and foremost the prime minister, ministers of finance, environment, interior, defence, and justice), as well as chief of the Internal Security Agency, Foreign Intelligence Agency, Central Anti-Corruption Bureau, and Police.
The proponents explain that the timeframe in question begins on July 1, 2013, because it was then when the wiretapping of key state figures began and later sparked a political crisis that led to Civic Platform's defeat in the 2015 parliamentary election.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki was asked on Friday in Brussels on his take on the idea of an investigative committee.
"Even more: I'm in favour of launching a committee or adequate mechanisms to verify the ways that Russian influence was affecting the area of security and energy system," he replied.
PiS spokesperson Radosław Fogiel told Polish Press Agency (PAP) called the motion and Donald Tusk's comments prior to its filing "an attempt to muddle the issue". "This is pure theatrics, there's nothing behind it," he added.
New thread in the wiretap scandal
On October 16, "Newsweek" weekly published a story on a new thread in the so-called wiretap scandal, which had sparked a crisis in Donald Tusk's cabinet in 2014. According to the author, Grzegorz Rzeczkowski, Marek Falenta's (Falenta was sentenced for organising wiretapping of key state figures - edit.) associate testified that before the tapes recorded in "Sowa i Przyjaciele" restaurant had stirred the Polish political scene, they had first landed in the hands of the Russians, while "the prosecutor's office launches an investigation, but ignores the espionage thread" in the case.
Commenting on these revelations on Tuesday (October 18), Civic Platform chairman Donald Tusk said that in this situation only an independent investigative committee "could explain the influence of Russian services on PiS's energy policy".
In response, Justice Minister and Prosecutor General Zbigniew Ziobro said in a Tuesday's statement that "acting in the public interest, he made a decision as prosecutor general to make Mr Marcin W.'s (trial - edit.)testimony relating to the issues raised at today's press conference by Donald Tusk".
On Wednesday evening, the National Public Prosecutor's Office published six protocols from Marcin W.'s testimony from: September 23, 2014, August 24, 2015, November 20, 2017, July 16, 2018, September 16, 2019, and June 11, 2021.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, PAP