EU states overrule MEPs on Polish court nominee

The European parliament is upset after EU states ignored its recommendation to reject a conservative Polish candidate to the EU's spending watchdog, the Court of Auditors.

MEPs earlier this month endorsed four out of the five candidates but national governments at a justice and interior ministers' council last week appointed them all anyway.

All five names were then published in the Official Journal, sparking outrage with the parliament's lead negotiator on the file, Slovenian Green MEP Igor Soltes, who only found out on Tuesday (26 April).

The MEPs opposed appointing Janusz Wojciechowski of the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party to the court after raising questions about his "independent judgment".

PiS is currently the ruling party in Poland and engaged in a controversy with the EU and the Council of Europe over constitutional reforms introduced by the government.

The council, which is not bound by the parliament's opinion, went ahead with Wojciechowski, who is also a former judge and ex-president of the Supreme Audit Office (NIK) in Poland.

Soltes said the decision was an affront to the European Parliament and its role in appointing people to the Luxembourg court.

Wojciechowski, he said, is also in a conflict of interest given his current role as vice-chair of the parliament's agriculture committee.

"He was responsible for deciding on the very budgets he will now be expected to audit," said Soltes in a statement.

Wojciechowski, in added twist, had also promised to withdraw his candidacy should the Parliament reject him before the vote took place.

"If parliament's opinion is unfavorable I will ask the Polish government to consider withdrawing my candidacy," he said.

When asked to comment on how his name ended up in the official journal anyway, the Polish MEP has yet to respond to this website.

MEPs in the budgetary and control committee had also grilled him on his party's government politics at his hearing in March.

But Wojciechowski deflected the questions and then promised to resign from PiS should he ever take up the new post.

"I'm going to resign from the membership of the party," he said.

A spokesperson at the council, representing member states, said it does not justify its appointments.

Meanwhile, Wojciechowski, along with his four other colleagues, will start their new jobs in May.

Their portfolios and which of the four chambers they will be assigned to in the Luxembourg-based court has yet to be decided.

"This will be known in the coming weeks," said a contact at the court.

Chamber one is natural resources. Chamber two is cohesion policy. Chamber three is foreign policy. And chamber four deals with the EU institutions.

Deja vu

It is not the first time the EU Council ignored the parliament on a nominations for the Court of Auditors.

MEPs had also in 2013 opposed the nomination of Neven Mates from Croatia.

Mates, at the time, had also said he would not take the post if MEPs rejected him.

"In case of a negative opinion, it is quite likely that I would withdraw my candidacy, after careful consideration of all [the] objections," Mates told MEPs in the budgetary control committee.

Mates then started his new job at the Court.