Request for the waiver of the immunity of Michał Dworczyk

on the request for the waiver of the immunity of Michał Dworczyk

(2024/2044(IMM))

The European Parliament,

–having regard to the request for the waiver of the immunity of Michał Dworczyk sent on 29 August 2024 by the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Poland, forwarding a request submitted by the Warsaw divisional public prosecution service in connection with criminal proceedings to be brought against Michał Dworczyk and announced in plenary on 16 September 2024,

–having heard Michał Dworczyk on 13 February 2025, in accordance with Rule 9(6) of its Rules of Procedure, and having regard to the document submitted by him,

–having regard to the additional information provided by the Warsaw divisional public prosecution service on 28 March and 8 May 2025,

–having regard to Articles 8 and 9 of Protocol No 7 on the Privileges and Immunities of the European Union, and Article 6(2) of the Act of 20 September 1976 concerning the election of the members of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage,

–having regard to the judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union of 21 October 2008, 19 March 2010, 6 September 2011, 17 January 2013 and 5 July 2023,

–having regard to Article 105(2) and (5) of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland,

–having regard to Rule 5(2), Rule 6(1) and Rule 9 of its Rules of Procedure,

–having regard to the report of the Committee on Legal Affairs (A10-0178/2025),

A.whereas, by letter dated 29 August 2024, the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Poland forwarded a request for the waiver of the immunity of Michał Dworczyk, submitted by the Warsaw divisional public prosecution service, in connection with alleged offences under Article 231(1) and Article 239(1), in conjunction with Article 11(2), of the Polish Criminal Code;

B.whereas on 8 June 2021, Michał Dworczyk filed a report with the National Security Agency concerning the commission of a crime by unidentified persons involving the acquisition of access data to his email account, and whereas, following that report, the Warsaw divisional public prosecution service launched an investigation on 10 June 2021 concerning a phishing attack that resulted in the acquisition of access data to an email account belonging to Michał Dworczyk, then Head of the Chancellery of the Polish Prime Minister;

C. whereas, in the course of that investigation, the Warsaw divisional public prosecution service established that between 19 December 2017 and 8 June 2021 Michał Dworczyk exceeded his powers as Head of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister or failed to fulfil his official duties, and whereas that same prosecution service thus decided on 13 June 2022 to initiate separate criminal proceedings concerning the use of his private email account for the performance of his official duties, the deletion of some official emails from his private email account after it was made public that unidentified perpetrators had gained access to that email account, and the possession of classified documents in a private email account, thereby harming the public interest and simultaneously obstructing a criminal investigation being conducted by the District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw; whereas the investigation concerning these separate proceedings was repeatedly prolonged in order to carry out procedural activities consisting, among other things, of analysing the content of emails from Michał Dworczyk’s private email account, as well as hearing witnesses and, on 22 May 2024, a person considered to be a suspect. whereas, since Michał Dworczyk was serving as a Member of the Polish Sejm from 13 November 2023, a request for authorisation to initiate criminal proceedings against him was submitted to the Sejm on 6 June 2024, before a decision to bring charges against him was issued, and whereas the proceedings following that request were closed given that Michał Dworczyk’s term as a Member of the Sejm expired and he was elected as a Member of the European Parliament;

D.whereas in the course of those investigations it was found that, between 1 March 2017 and 18 December 2017, as State Secretary at the Ministry of National Defence, then between 19 December 2017 and 8 June 2021, as Minister and Member of the Council of Ministers and Head of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, Michał Dworczyk is alleged to have failed to comply with the obligations laid down, inter alia, in the Law of 5 August 2010 on the protection of classified information, in so far as he used an uncertified and unsecured private email account to exchange correspondence relating to the performance of his official duties, such correspondence containing, inter alia, classified information, matters relating to defence and national security, matters relating to the secret services issues, matters relating to information security, etc., thereby harming the public interest; whereas his alleged actions constitute an offence under Article 231(1) of the Polish Criminal Code;

E.whereas, in the period from 8 to 22 June 2021, Michał Dworczyk subsequently obstructed the conduct of criminal proceedings by instructing a third person to permanently delete certain information from his private email account, thereby destroying evidence; whereas the action he is alleged to have taken constitutes an infringement under Article 239(1), read in conjunction with Article 11(2), of the Polish Criminal Code;

F.whereas Michał Dworczyk was elected to the European Parliament in the June 2024 European elections; whereas he was not a Member of the European Parliament when the alleged offences were committed, nor when the criminal investigation into the alleged offences, including the separate criminal proceedings, were opened;

G.whereas the alleged offences and the subsequent request for the waiver of his immunity are not related to opinions expressed or votes cast by Michał Dworczyk in the performance of his duties within the meaning of Article 8 of Protocol No 7 on the Privileges and Immunities of the European Union;

H.whereas Article 9, first paragraph, point (a) of Protocol No 7 on the Privileges and Immunities of the European Union provides that Members of the European Parliament are to enjoy, in the territory of their own State, the immunities accorded to members of their parliament;

I.whereas, pursuant to Article 105(2) and (5) of the Polish Constitution, from the day the election results are announced until the day their mandate expires, deputies cannot be subjected to criminal accountability without the consent of the Sejm, and can be neither detained nor arrested without the consent of the Sejm, except in cases where they have been apprehended in the commission of an offence and in which their detention is necessary to secure the proper course of proceedings;

J.whereas the purpose of parliamentary immunity is to protect Parliament and its Members from legal proceedings in relation to activities that are carried out in the performance of parliamentary duties and that cannot be separated from those duties;

K.whereas, in accordance with Rule 5(2) of the Rules of Procedure, parliamentary immunity is not a personal privilege of the Member but a guarantee of the independence of Parliament as a whole and of its Members;

L.whereas, in this case, Parliament found no evidence of fumus persecutionis, which is to say factual elements indicating that the intention underlying the legal proceedings in question is to undermine the Member’s political activity in his capacity as a Member of the European Parliament;

M.whereas Parliament cannot assume the role of a court, and whereas, in a waiver of immunity procedure, a Member cannot be regarded as a defendant;

1.Decides to waive the immunity of Michał Dworczyk;

2.Instructs its President to forward this decision, and the report of its committee responsible, immediately to the appropriate authority of the Republic of Poland and to Michał Dworczyk.