The inauguration of the Polish Business Club (PKB) on 28 May 2026 by Minister Andrzej Domański at the premises of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland on Unter den Linden in Berlin was meant to be a symbolic act of reinforcing Poland's economic presence in Germany. The occasion, however, also raised some significant questions.
The club's initiator on behalf of the embassy, Marcin Król, Head of the Economic Department and Vice-President of the Polish Business Club at the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Berlin, gathered nearly two hundred companies around the project. The club's stated goals are networking, support in mergers and acquisitions and, above all, a platform for Polish investors taking over German entities. The club's official slogan is "Polish companies join forces." The reality revealed by the ownership and personnel structures of the key player behind the initiative compels one to ask about the true nature of this venture.
Germany is a strategic trading partner for Poland. Mutual investment and integrated supply chains form a durable foundation for the competitiveness of both economies. In this context, the Polish Business Club at the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Berlin aims to support the expansion of Polish companies, integrate the business community and provide Polish entrepreneurs with stronger representation on the German market — said Dr Adam Sikorski, CEO of Unimot S.A., during the inauguration.
The Club's first chairman (CEO) became Radosław Tomasz Krochta, CEO of MLP Group S.A., a company listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (GPW) and one of the largest developers of logistics parks in Central Europe. MLP, however, is not a typical "Polish champion." It is an entity with deep historical and ongoing ties to Israeli real-estate capital. Its largest shareholder remains the Dutch Cajamarca Holland BV, and a significant one is The Israel Land Development Company Ltd. (ILDC). The group was founded by the Israeli company ILDC together with an associated circle of investors, which to this day retains real influence over its strategy through its shareholding and the Supervisory Board.
MLP Group is no newcomer in Germany; its policy there is highly expansive. The group is developing logistics parks in, among others, Castrop-Rauxel, Unna, Spreenhagen near Berlin, where it is carrying out two projects, and Schalke/Gelsenkirchen. The next project is to be the two-level MLP Business Park Munich. According to available information, MLP Group has invested approximately €800 million in Germany. It is building not only big-box warehouses but also so-called city logistics facilities in key metropolitan areas. This is not a marginal presence — it is a real influence on German logistics infrastructure and supply chains.
Is the Polish Business Club at the Polish embassy meant to support Polish entrepreneurs, or rather to facilitate the expansion of capital over which Poland has no real control?
The Club is to have a Management Board and a Programme Council, yet the absence of a full, public list of the members of these bodies, apart from the chairman, is in itself troubling. If they are dominated by entities with an ownership structure similar to MLP's, we may be dealing not so much with a platform for Polish business as with a club restricted to a select group of capital that uses the Polish diplomatic flag as a convenient umbrella.
On the other hand, also active within these structures is Unimot, which remains under the control of the Sikorski family and already holds stakes in German logistics companies.
The above questions are not directed at the investors who are pursuing their own interests, but at the Polish state — under the control of Donald Tusk's administration — which, invoking "Polish interests," may in fact be promoting entities that do not need Polish assistance. In the context of Polish-German relations, in which questions of ownership, supply-chain security and geopolitics play an ever-greater role, such an initiative requires far deeper public debate and parliamentary scrutiny.
The Polish Business Club could be an important instrument for strengthening Poland's economic sovereignty in Germany. Instead, we risk it becoming an example of how the economic diplomacy of the Republic of Poland serves particular interests that, while legal, do not necessarily align with the long-term strategic goals of the Polish state.
