Poland in the EU

The ceremonial inauguration of the programme, initiated by the Permanent Representation of Poland to the European Union, was attended by Minister of Foreign Affairs Zbigniew Rau, EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy Olivier Varhelyi and President of the Management Board of Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego Beata Daszyńska-Muzyczka.

By signing the agreement, Poland became the coordinator of the Team Europe project to distribute vaccines to Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries, i.e. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

Poland will collect demand from the countries across the eastern border and forward it to European capitals. The EaP countries will receive the vaccines free of charge, then the EU states will bill Brussels, which has allocated €35 million for that purpose.

"The current initiative coordinated by Poland to provide free, fair and sustainable access to vaccination against covid-19 in the Eastern Partnership countries is another example of solidarity with the region," - said the head of Polish diplomacy at the inauguration. "This is an important day of European solidarity," he added.

The political decision for Poland to join the project was taken by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.