Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki attends meeting of Visegrad Group government heads with President of France
13.12.2021
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki visited Budapest, where he met with the prime ministers of Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic as part of the next summit of the Visegrad Group countries. However, this time among the meeting participants was also President of France Emmanuel Macron. Aimed at discussing the current geopolitical developments in Europe, the Budapest meeting allowed the parties present to closely examine the current threats related to illegal migration and the crisis caused by the surging energy prices. During its course, President Emmanuel Macron presented the priorities of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union, which are to take into account such problems as migration and asylum policy.
High energy prices
As of today, European countries face two fundamental problems in terms of energy issues. The first one is high gas prices and Russian manipulation while the second is the ETS. Poland has doubts about the current functioning of the EU CO2 emission allowance trading system. The increase in the price of allowances is uncontrolled, which encourages speculation. Furthermore, expanding the ETS to also cover the building and road transport sectors is a step in the wrong direction as it may contribute to increasing energy poverty. “We are concerned about the various investment and speculative entities, banks and investment funds, being allowed to purchase CO2 emission allowances. This causes an artificial price increase. And today, this price translates into a general increase in energy prices”, stressed PM Morawiecki.
Mr Morawiecki plans to point to the need to rebuild the system at the next European Council session and counts on the support of numerous countries that are dependent on the ETS and do not want it to be susceptible to speculative attacks.
Situation on EU’s eastern border
Since June 2021, the Polish-Belarusian border – EU’s eastern border – is affected by a migration crisis caused by the Alexander Lukashenko regime. This organised action controlled and supervised by Belarusian services is the largest attempt to destabilise the entire European Union in the last 30 years.
At the Budapest meeting, PM Morawiecki thanked the prime ministers of the Visegrad Group and the President of France for their recognition of actions taken by Poland. “We must be able to defend our external borders. While we can talk about what system to build on the inside, we have to prevent the smuggling of people and their use as human shields, as done today by Lukashenko and his principals, against the countries of the European Union. This is one of the guiding principles in the defence of the European Union’s borders, and at the same time, in the migration policy”, Mr Morawiecki explained.
Among the issues discussed at the meeting were also sanctions. “We are aware that Belarus fears economic sanctions, a trade embargo – we have these tools at our disposal. Should this escalation continue, or if Minsk and Moscow seek new ways to destabilise this part of Europe, we shall not hesitate to present to the European Commission, and our partners, new solutions aimed at delivering a more decisive response to any such practices”, said Prime Minister Morawiecki.
