Minister says Poland's position in EU is growing stronger

Poland's Minister for the European Union said on Tuesday, after a meeting of EU ministers for European affairs in Brussels, that Poland's voice was being increasingly heard throughout Europe.

Szymon Szynkowski vel Sek said that "it is gratifying that the European Union is increasingly speaking with a Polish voice, it is not like it was a few years ago."

"Poland had warned against Russian aggression, something that had been disregarded in the past, but now makes Poland's voice more listened to in Europe...This is the fundamental change that has taken place in the last few months at least," he added.

According to the minister, during the next EU summit that commences on Thursday, Poland expects the EU to co-finance costs of sheltering Ukrainian refugees.

"Poland is the country that has faced successes in managing the biggest refugee crisis since World War II. More than 10 million refugees passed through our country, around 1.5 million refugees have remained in Poland," he said.

"We incurred high costs in this respect and we expect that European institutions will be more active - both in terms of the flexibility of the legal framework and the scale of co-financing these costs… The (European - PAP) Commission should present specific proposals in this matter," Szynkowski vel Sek added.

Poland will also support increasing funds of the European Peace Facility by EUR 3.5 billion. These funds are spent to train Ukrainian soldiers. "Not all countries are convinced but we hope that the summit will end in an agreement," the minister said.