The Polish authorities refused to invite the Hungarian ambassador to the official inauguration gala of the Polish presidency of the Council of the European Union on Friday, following Hungary's decision to grant political asylum to a former Polish deputy minister wanted for alleged corruption.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was also not invited to the ceremony in Warsaw's Grand Theatre, Deputy Minister for European Affairs Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka said.
In December, Budapest granted political asylum to the former Polish deputy justice minister in the previous nationalist government, Marcin Romanowski, on the grounds that there was "concrete evidence of shortcomings in the judicial process" conducted against him in Poland, a move that Warsaw considered a "hostile act."
"Following this situation with Mr. Romanowski, (Foreign) Minister Radoslaw Sikorski sent a note to the Hungarian ambassador that he would not be welcome at the inaugural gala to be held on Friday evening at the National Theatre in Warsaw," Ms. Sobkowiak-Czarnecka told public broadcaster TVP Info.
The Polish prosecutor's office accuses Romanowski, who was in charge of supervising a fund to help victims of crime within the Ministry of Justice from 2019 to 2023, of committing 11 offences.
In particular, he is suspected of having embezzled or attempted to embezzle nearly €40 million.
Relations between Warsaw and Budapest have deteriorated sharply since the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, to which Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban was close, was defeated in Poland's October 2023 parliamentary elections, and pro-European forces led by Donald Tusk came to power.
Poland formally took over the rotating presidency of the EU Council from Hungary on 1 January.
