Tag: MFA

On 29 August 2019, we filed a request to exclude the Head of the Customs and Tax Office in Lodz (Pol. Urząd Celno-Skarbowy w Łodzi) due to his violation of Article 121 §1 of the Act of 29 August 1997, Tax Ordinance (Journal of Laws of 2019, item 900, as amended).

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs argues that they were against using the discussion about the Open Dialogue Foundation in Poland to deal with the Moldovan opposition.

The fiscal inspection of ODF’s activity was requested by the then head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, W. Waszczykowski. The case was transferred to the Customs and Tax Office in Łódź, which had previously been headed by Tomasz Waszczykowski, the brother of the head of the ministry of diplomacy

Last week, the Open Dialogue Foundation filed the notification to the Warsaw District Prosecutor on the suspicion of commiting a crime concerning the disclosure of confidential tax data on the injury of the ODF and the Silk Road Bureau of Analysis and Information LLC partially funding the ODF.

On 1 March 2019, the Open Dialogue Foundation received a response to a request for public information regarding contacts between Polish diplomats and their Moldovan counterparts.

On 14 February 2019, the Open Dialogue Foundation asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jacek Czaputowicz, to disclose public information on cooperation with the Moldovan authorities.

The case of activist Lyudymyla Kozlovska, president of the Polish-based human rights NGO Open Dialogue Foundation (ODF), who was expelled from the EU by the Polish government, is becoming increasingly curious.

Today’s words by W. Waszczykowski about Ukraine are significant: “We also immediately stipulated that the Three Seas Initiative applies only to EU countries. Despite Petro Poroshenko’s requests and begging, Ukraine was not invited – even as an observer.

On May 24, Gazeta Wyborcza published a column entitled “Good change counted in ziobrys” on the application of the Minister of Foreign Affairs to the court to dismiss the board of the Open Dialogue Foundation and the last similar case regarding the organization Citizens of the Republic of Poland.

In the dispute with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since August 2017, the Open Dialogue Foundation once again defended its position: The Regional Court for the capital city of Warsaw decided to dismiss the Minister of Foreign Affairs’s complaint against the previous decision of the court.

On 7 December 2017, the court dismissed the motion, personally signed by Witold Waszczykowski, for appointment of a compulsory administrator for the Open Dialogue Foundation. Still, his successor, Minister Jacek Czaputowicz is following in the footsteps of his predecessor.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has received the court’s decision dismissing the motion to suspend the management board and appoint a compulsory administrator for the Open Dialogue Foundation; the Ministry is planning to file a complaint in the matter” Gazeta Prawna writes.

The Management Board of the Open Dialogue Foundation will not be suspended – on 7 December, the District Court in Warsaw dismissed the motion of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to put the Foundation under administrative receivership and to suspend its current Management Board.

Even though ODF has not officially received, though any channel, any information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MSZ) or the court, the possibility of appointing a compulsory administrator for the Foundation is widely discussed by Polish media such as Newsweek or Wirtualna Polska.

„The Ministry of Foreign affairs is considering the appointment of a compulsory administrator for the Open Dialogue Foundation” Newsweek communicated on the 21st August, relying on information from the Ministry’s press office.