The European Parliament has voted to lift the immunity of two Polish lawmakers, Daniel Obajtek and Michał Dworczyk, enabling prosecutors in Warsaw to advance abuse-of-power cases alleged to date from Poland’s previous Law and Justice (PiS) administration. The decision was taken in Strasbourg on Tuesday, 7 October, by a show of hands during the midday voting session.
Obajtek, a former chief executive of the state oil and fuel group PKN Orlen who entered the European Parliament in 2024, faces allegations that company funds were used to pay private detectives for non-corporate purposes. Polish authorities set out the suspected offences in a request transmitted to the European Parliament last year; the Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) subsequently recommended waiving his parliamentary protection. The plenary accepted that recommendation on Tuesday. Obajtek denies wrongdoing.
Dworczyk, who served as head of the Chancellery of then-Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki between 2017 and 2022 and was elected to the European Parliament in 2024, is under investigation over the use of a private email account for state business and the alleged disclosure of classified material. A tranche of emails attributed to his account began appearing on Telegram in 2021; he resigned from his government role the following year. He also denies the accusations. The European Parliament’s decision follows a formal waiver request from Poland announced in plenary in September 2024 and reported to members by JURI.
According to the Parliament’s agenda for this session, both files were steered in plenary by rapporteur David Cormand, with separate proposals recommending that immunity be lifted in each case. The items were scheduled among a series of immunity decisions, alongside files concerning other members. The method of adoption — a show of hands — indicates there was no recorded roll-call vote.
The waivers do not constitute findings of guilt. Under EU law, Members of the European Parliament enjoy immunity that shields them from legal proceedings in member states while they perform their duties. That protection can be lifted by the Parliament when national authorities present a substantiated request and the Legal Affairs Committee finds that the proceedings do not concern opinions expressed in the exercise of parliamentary functions and are not being brought with the intention of causing political damage. Once immunity is lifted, domestic prosecutors may proceed under national criminal procedure.
The decisions mark an early success for Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s pledge to pursue accountability for alleged abuses during PiS’s tenure from 2015 to 2023. Tusk’s camp has argued that state institutions were used to advance partisan goals. Efforts to pursue cases have nevertheless faced constraints arising from structural changes to the justice system adopted under PiS, which have narrowed the room for manoeuvre of the prosecutor general. Tuesday’s votes give Warsaw prosecutors procedural clearance in two high-profile files but do not predetermine outcomes in court.
Polish media and international agencies have followed the Obajtek case closely given his former role at Orlen, a strategically significant state-controlled group. In July this year, Poland’s prosecutor general notified the European Parliament that evidence assembled by prosecutors supported the submission of charges and therefore sought the lifting of immunity. The case progressed through the Parliament’s internal procedures during September and early October.
The Dworczyk file stems from a wider controversy over the conduct of official business on private channels during the Morawiecki government. In 2024, Poland requested that the Parliament strip Dworczyk of immunity, citing alleged offences linked to the email affair. The Parliament’s report on the request notes that it was formally transmitted by Poland on 29 August 2024 and announced in plenary on 16 September 2024, before moving to JURI for examination.
Both men reacted on Tuesday by portraying the actions as politically driven. Obajtek wrote on X that the Parliament’s decision facilitates “political repression” by the Tusk government; Dworczyk made a similar claim. Their statements echo the PiS opposition’s broader narrative that current investigations amount to selective justice. The European Parliament, however, assesses only the procedural criteria for waiving immunity; it does not adjudicate the substance of national allegations.
Next steps will lie with Polish prosecutors, who may now bring charges before competent courts. If indictments follow, trials will proceed under Polish law, with the defendants retaining the usual presumption of innocence and rights of defence. Any eventual convictions or acquittals would be matters for Poland’s judiciary. The European Parliament has no further role unless additional requests concerning procedural measures are submitted.
Tuesday’s votes also sit within a broader pattern of the current Parliament’s approach to immunity cases this autumn. In late September, MEPs voted in other high-profile files to protect the immunity of some members while recommending waivers in others, reflecting the case-by-case assessment applied by JURI and the plenary.
With immunity lifted, the focus now returns to Warsaw, where investigators must decide whether the evidential threshold for charges is met and, if so, present the cases to court. Until then, both MEPs remain in office and continue to deny the allegations.
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