By AFP Poland said Friday it barred Hungary’s ambassador from the opening gala of its EU presidency because of a diplomatic spat over a former minister, a decision Hungary called branded “childish”.

The row over a Polish lawmaker who fled to Hungary to escape corruption charges cast a shadow over the event to mark the handing of stewardship of the bloc from Hungary’s nationalist government to Poland’s pro-European leadership.

In December, Hungary gave refugee status to Polish lawmaker Marcin Romanowski who had served as deputy justice minister in the previous right-wing government led by the Law and Justice (PiS) party.

Facing corruption charges and an arrest warrant, Romanowski had fled Poland for Hungary, which is governed by PiS ally Viktor Orban, and was granted political asylum there.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski called that move a “hostile act”.

“Following the situation around Romanowski, Minister Sikorski sent a note to the Hungarian ambassador saying he was not a welcome guest” at the gala to launch Warsaw’s presidency of the European Union, Poland’s deputy European affairs minister Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka told the state broadcaster TVP.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto called the decision “pathetic and childish”, in a statement sent to AFP.

The gala to mark Poland’s holding of the six-month rotating EU presidency — under the slogan “Security, Europe!” — took place on Friday evening in Warsaw.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and European Council President Antonio Costa delivered speeches at the event.

Tusk stressed how important “security, competitiveness, innovation, imagination, courage (and) good leadership” were for Europe.

“We know that these are all our sources of strength,” he added.

“If Europe is weak, it will not survive,” Tusk warned.

– Support for Ukraine –

Costa said the European Union must continue to support Ukraine, which has been battling a Russian invasion for nearly three years.

“Ukraine must remain our top priority,” he said.

“We must continue to stand with Ukraine — as much as necessary, for as long as it takes, to win a comprehensive, just and lasting peace.”

Costa also praised Poland for being “at the forefront of Europe’s defence capabilities that we need to develop to protect our countries, our societies, our values”.

Poland currently spends more than four percent of its GDP on defence.

The country took over the rotating EU presidency this month from Hungary.

Ties between Warsaw and Budapest have soured since Poland’s October 2023 legislative elections, which ousted the PiS government from power and ushered in the pro-European coalition led by Tusk.

Polish prosecutors have charged Romanowski with 11 offences including participation in an organised crime group and attempted embezzlement of funds totalling almost 40 million euros ($41 million) from a fund for crime victims, which he supervised.

Polish officers arrested Romanowski in July but his detention was later deemed illegal by the courts because he had immunity as a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), a rights body, and he was released.

He disappeared in early December after PACE revoked his immunity and a court ordered his arrest.

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