2020 and the manner of apology in June 2021. This was shortened due to mental health difficulties he faced at the time of the incident. Anglo-Polish relations Since becoming the chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Poland in 2014, Kawczynski has supported a range of enterprises from his constituency in seeking business partners and export markets in Poland and other Central and Eastern European countries, offering support and advice. He had been a frequent visitor to the British Polish Chamber of Commerce in Warsaw where he often spoke of the importance of trade between Poland and the United Kingdom. In 2016, Kawczynski was distinguished as an "Outstanding Pole Abroad of 2016" for his efforts in promoting trade and political relations between the United Kingdom and his country of birth. In 2017, he joined calls for Germany to pay war reparations for crimes committed against the Allies and for the destruction of Poland during the Second World War. On 15 October 2017, he sent a letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel urging her to stop demanding money from the UK during the Brexit negotiations and pay Poland. In 2019, he said that he had asked the Polish Government to veto any requests for an extension of the Article 50 period that might be made by the UK Government. In late 2021, a Freedom of Information request from the media showed that Kawczynski had claimed nearly £22,000 in expenses between 2016 and 2021 for Polish language lessons, despite Polish being his native tongue and his claiming to be a fluent speaker. Kawczynski said that while he was able to converse in Polish, his reading and writing skills had been limited. European Union Kawczynski is a supporter of Brexit and a former member of the European Research Group, which he left in April 2019. In September 2018 he claimed on Twitter that EU lemon growers are inefficient, and that the EU imposed tariffs on the import of fruit from non-EU Mediterranean countries, causing higher prices to consumers. Both claims were refuted. On 2 February 2019, Kawczynski tweeted, in the context of a complaint about certain attitudes of the European Union, that, "Britain helped to liberate half of Europe. She mortgaged herself up to eye balls in process. No Marshall Plan for us only for Germany. We gave up war reparations in 1990. We put £370 billion into EU since we joined. Watch