Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, has criticised the European Union for imposing financial punishments on both Russia for its aggression against Ukraine and Poland, which has been helping Ukraine.
During a visit to Paris, which focused on the energy crisis as well as the war, Morawiecki also called for the EU to put a cap on prices in its emissions trading scheme and reiterated his government’s desire to work with France on creating Poland’s first nuclear power plants.
Spotkanie @MorawieckiM z @EmmanuelMacron w Paryżu 🇵🇱🇫🇷
Tematami rozmów m. in.:
➡️ możliwe działania UE mające powstrzymać dalszą agresję Rosji,
➡️ zwiększenie bezpieczeństwa energetycznego oraz walka z rosnącymi cenami nośników energii (w tym reforma regulacji unijnych). pic.twitter.com/C4CzRuv3xA— Piotr Müller (@PiotrMuller) August 29, 2022
At a press conference alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, Morawiecki was asked “about EU sanctions imposed on Poland” by a journalist, who said that they “probably exceed the Russian ones”, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
While the EU has not formally imposed any sanctions on Poland, it has been withholding around €36 billion in post-pandemic recovery funds over concerns about the rule of law and has also issued tens of millions of euros in fines over Warsaw’s failure to comply with European Court of Justice rulings.
In response to the question, Morawiecki described the situation as an “absurd paradox” that “today these two countries, Russia and Poland, are the most punished by the European Commission”.
“Poland, which opened its doors and hearts to Ukrainian refugees, which helps defend freedom, democracy and sovereignty, which secures NATO’s eastern flank, and Russia, which is an aggressor, which commits war crimes, murders, on civilians in Ukraine.”
The Polish prime minister argued that the current situation should be “a time of solidarity, a time to search for common denominators, and not a time to search for differences”.
“Either we get out of this crisis together or we fail separately,” added Morawiecki, in quotes carried by Interia. “The only division that should exist today is between countries that want peace and countries that want war.”
He claimed that Macron “fully understood the absurdity of the whole situation” and “agreed with me in many places”, noting that in France no one needs to be told the meaning of “one for all and all for one, the old motto of the musketeers”
Morawiecki also specifically criticised Germany, saying that its longstanding “Ostpolitik” of friendly relations with Russia has become “lostpolitik”. It is now clear that “the real price of cheap gas [from Russia] is Ukrainian blood”.
On that subject, the Polish premier also called for the EU to take action to bring down energy prices. In particular, he called for the prices of carbon in its emissions trading scheme (ETS) to be “frozen at around €30”, well below its current level of around €90, notes financial news website Money.pl.
Morawiecki said that France could be a “natural partner” in the development of Poland’s first nuclear power plants. The government is currently seeking international partners in its nuclear plans, with the US and South Korea also keen to be involved, as well as France.
Later, while giving a speech to open the annual meeting of the French Medef business assocation, the Polish prime minister declared that “energy cooperation between France and Poland, including in the nuclear power plant, strengthens the security of the entire continent”.
Main image credit: Krystian Maj/KPRM (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)
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.
