Polexit would be a mistake - Minister for Europe

Polexit would be a mistake and just create more problems for Poland, the country’s minister for Europe has said.

Talk of a Polish departure from the EU has been amplified in recent weeks following a heated dispute between Warsaw and Brussels over the new EU budget, but speaking to the weekly magazine Do Rzeczy, Konrad Szymański, Europe minister, said leaving would be a "wrong response".

"Polexit would solve none of Poland’s problems and would create new ones," he said. "It would be a wrong response to the real problems of European cooperation."

"I see no added value in Polexit," he added.

Referring to Poland-EU relations, Szymański said that they could not be limited to a dispute over the rule of law nor defined as a smouldering question over civilisation.

"We have a convergent agenda on many issues," he said, citing the single market, trade policy, digital policy and the EU's expansion and sanctions policies.

"As far as these matters are concerned, the EU plays a positive role and strengthens Poland's position," said Szymański. "But the whole of these relations is much more complicated. Both the European Commission and the European Parliament are Poland's allies in many aspects of European cooperation."

Repeating that Polexit would solve none of Poland's problems, Szymański said that Poland's sovereignty would be weakened outside the EU, and added that the unity of the West was a very important dimension of its security.

Polexit, he added, would not end the necessity for Poland to transform its energy sector, or bring an end to the dispute over LGBT rights, since "its cause lies much deeper than the policy conducted by Brussels."