Polish MEP additionally went on freelance Azerbaijan journey

So mentioned Tomasz Poręba from Poland’s ruling Regulation and Justice social gathering on Azeri state media in Baku final July.

He referred to as for nearer ties between Poland, Europe and Azerbaijan in an interview entitled ‘Poland wants fuel’, which Azerbaijan desires to promote to the EU in bigger portions.

Poręba was there as an MEP and as a member of the EU Parliament’s transport committee (Tran), in response to an official report by Azerbaijan’s parliament, the Milli Majlis, and a number of Azeri-government media tales on the time.

He additionally visited the war-torn Nagorno-Karabakh area, the place senior EU diplomats concern to tread in case it inflames tensions with Armenia.

However Poręba did not hassle to declare the go to in his EU Parliament register, because the code of conduct requires.

And the Tran committee has no file of him going there on its behalf, in what quantities to deja vu on three different MEPs, who undertook comparable journeys final yr.

When Swedish investigative information web site Blankspot contacted Poręba, his Belgian legislation agency replied that Poręba wasn’t in Azerbaijan in his capability as an MEP, however merely as president of New Route, his rightwing think-tank in Brussels.

Poręba was accompanied by New Route’s government director Witold de Chevilly, the legislation agency mentioned.

The think-tank paid for the entire journey, the legal professionals mentioned.

And if Azeri media claimed Poręba had represented anybody apart from New Route that was merely the journalists’ mistake, they added.

However even when New Route did pay for every part, the MEP ought to nonetheless have declared this as a present price over €150 in his EU Parliament registry — which he did not.

And if Poręba’s journey was nothing to do together with his MEP standing, then Azerbaijan’s EU embassy informed a contradictory story.

Poręba and three different MEPs that visited Azerbaijan final yr (Anders Ameriks, Franc Bogovič, and Engin Eroglu) have been all invited by the “EU-Azerbaijan Parliamentary Cooperation Committee within the Parliament of Azerbaijan”, the embassy informed EUobserver on 3 February.

Azerbaijan’s EU ambassador, Vaqif Sadıqov, helped organise their journeys as a part of his regular duties, the embassy added in a prolonged e-mail, which by no means talked about New Route.

In the meantime, a number of the MEPs later admitted Azerbaijan had paid for his or her resorts in Baku and for excursions to the mountainous and distant Nagorno-Karabakh area.

However the Azeri embassy denied this, additional muddying the waters.

“Neither Mr Poręba, nor different members of the European Parliament acquired ‘any free hospitality’. In case you are referring to small gestures resembling providing tea, espresso, or comfortable drinks, then, sure, they have been supplied,” it informed EUobserver.

“Bills resembling flights, resorts are lined by the visiting visitors themselves,” it mentioned.

There isn’t any suggestion any of the 4 MEPs broke legal guidelines of their dealings with the petro-dictatorship.

However Azerbaijan has a observe file of sowing EU disinformation in addition to for so-called ‘caviar diplomacy’ — lavish hospitality for overseas VIPs, making it a controversial good friend.

The best way Poręba and others rode roughshod over EU Parliament transparency guidelines additionally makes Brussels look unhealthy, within the wake of the Qatargate bribery scandal.

One fellow MEP, German Inexperienced Niklas Nienaß, resigned from a parliament cross-party group, following earlier revelations of their freewheeling Azeri diplomacy.

And this investigation sheds mild on how overseas regimes make mates and affect folks within the EU power-bubble.

U-turn

Zooming again in on Poręba, the 49-year previous Pole did not begin out as Azerbaijan’s good friend.

Baku declared him persona non grata when he travelled to Nagorno-Karabakh in 2010 — lengthy earlier than Azerbaijan reconquered elements of the area from Karabakh-Armenian forces within the Second Nagorno-Karabakh Struggle in 2020.

Poręba went there as an EU Parliament rapporteur on Armenia.

However in 2019, he signed a letter declaring full respect for Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and his visa-ban was lifted.

His journey again to Azerbaijan in July 2022 was his first one since then.

He did not give a motive for the U-turn in his sympathies, however ever since his return from Baku, Poręba has labored arduous to tie Europe and Poland nearer to Azerbaijan.

He submitted a proposal to hyperlink European transport corridors to Azerbaijan through Turkey final November.

He convened a particular assembly with Azerbaijan’s transport minister concerning the corridors in December.

And he mentioned the identical subject with a think-tank belonging to Tural Ganyaliyev, an Azerbaijani MP who accompanied him, in addition to the opposite three MEPs, on journeys to Azerbaijan.

Poręba and his former journey companion, de Chevilly, have advocated for the opening of the Zangezur Hall — a extremely delicate route, whose standing remains to be being negotiated by Armenia and Azerbaijan and which stays closed for now.

Azeri media proceed to report that Poręba hosts his conferences as a Tran committee member, whilst Tran says it has no file of him representing them there.

Blurred strains

And once in a while, Poręba’s engagement goes means past any EU mandate he might need.

When Azerbaijan attacked Armenia in September 2022, Poręba took to the airwaves to denounce Armenia as a detailed ally of Russia.

In December, he additionally gave a public assertion on the standard of an Azerbaijani soccer membership, Qarabag Agdam, whereas including that he had helped two Polish coaches to get an internship with the crew.

That is how Poręba, as soon as an enemy-of-the-state, turned one other good friend of Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev within the coronary heart of the EU.

And for this reason MEPs’ blurred strains between freelance friendships, official committee roles, and their gold-and-blue EU Parliament badges create trigger for concern within the post-Qatargate ambiance.