Sibiu summit declaration good - PM
PM Mateusz Morawiecki on Thursday in Sibiu, Romania, praised a declaration on the EU's future adopted by an earlier informal EU summit in the city.
He also reminded about the Warsaw Declaration adopted after the recent Together for Europe summit of countries that joined the EU after 2004 in Warsaw.
Morawiecki called the Sibiu talks "a strategic debate on the future of the EU," and said it addressed all issues of key importance for Poland, including protection of the outer EU frontiers, migration, the single market, the free flow of services, and industrial policy.
The Polish PM stressed that industrial policy was currently under frequent debate in the EU, mainly owing to protectionist measures introduced by China and the US. In this context he underlined that the EU should not allow protectionism to flourish on its territory.
Morawiecki recounted that at the summit he spoke out for enlargement of the Schengen zone and outlined Poland's postulates regarding the Russian-German Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. He also addressed the Ukraine conflict, the EU's taxation and budgeting system, and structural funding. With regard to Nord Stream 2, Morawiecki said he told the summit the project was in fact a financing instrument for Russia's armament policy and as such "the opposite of European solidarity."
Commenting on the EU's taxation system, budget and structural funding, Morawiecki stressed that these areas will be very important in forthcoming talks on the EU's next financial perspective, and assured that he was "positively impressed" by the way the Sibiu summit approached these matters.
Morawiecki called the Sibiu declaration "a good general declaration on the future of Europe," and reminded about the recent Warsaw Declaration of 13 "new" EU member states concerning cohesion policy, road and infrastructure projects.
Asked if the summit also debated candidacies for high EU posts, Morawiecki said the matter was sparsely discussed as the delegates decided to postpone the matter until after the EP elections.
