Listening devices found in Polish government meeting room

The security services have discovered listening devices in a room where the Polish government is due to hold a special meeting today.

While the cabinet normally meets in Warsaw, the capital, it will today gather in Katowice, a city in the south of the country where Prime Minister Donald Tusk is separately due to give an address at the European Economic Congress (EEC) alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

This morning, the spokesman for Poland’s security services, Jacek Dobrzyński, announced that the State Protection Service (SOP) had “detected and dismantled devices that could be used for eavesdropping in the room” at the Silesian provincial administrative office where the cabinet would meet.

“The services are carrying out further activities in this matter,” added Dobrzyński, without providing details regarding the number or nature of the discovered devices.

Służba Ochrony Państwa we współpracy z Agencją Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego wykryła i zdemontowała urządzenia mogące służyć do podsłuchu w sali gdzie dziś w Katowicach ma odbyć się posiedzenie Rady Ministrów. Służby prowadzą dalsze czynności w tej sprawie pic.twitter.com/OOdZPSiifU

— Jacek Dobrzyński (@JacekDobrzynski) May 7, 2024

In an interview with news website Onet, Dobrzyński said that the devices had been discovered during a “standard search” that takes place whenever senior officials hold meetings.

He added that an investigation would now seek to “explain who installed these devices and whom and what purpose they were supposed to serve”. SOP spokesman Bogusław Piórkowski told Onet that the devices have been handed over to the Internal Security Agency (ABW).

Tusk is due to speak at the EEC at 10 a.m. before attending the cabinet meeting at 12 noon. He and his ministers will discuss, among other things, draft laws on energy vouchers and on electronic communications, announced Maciej Berek, head of the cabinet’s standing committee, on Monday.

Speaking to the Polish Press Agency (PAP), von der Leyen said that she and Tusk would use their speeches at the EEC to announce plans to “build a coalition for a strong Europe…that can defend itself”, including through a “European defence union”.

Jutrzejsze posiedzenie Rady Ministrów nietypowo, bo w Katowicach. A w porządku projekty dwóch ważnych ustaw:
– o bonie energetycznym;
– Prawo komunikacji elektronicznej. pic.twitter.com/qTEf9cPHBO

— Maciej Berek (@MaciejBerek) May 6, 2024

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Main image credit: Krystian Maj/KPRP (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.