Top Polish leaders gather to discuss energy security
President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki were among the top Polish politicians who met on Wednesday to discuss the country's energy security amid disruptions caused by soaring energy prices and Russia's use of energy as a blackmail tool.
"There are many elements (to discuss - PAP) but right now there is a problem... how to cope with the heating season and to ensure enough coal and other fuels needed to heat homes," Duda said before the meeting.
Duda went on to praise the government for managing to complete a new pipeline, the Baltic Pipe, which will pump natural gas from the Norwegian Shelf through Denmark to Poland. He also expressed optimism about "potential possibilities to import electricity from Ukraine, which are quite real."
The prime minister said that the government had not yet secured full gas transfers for the Baltic Pipe because "we don't want to negotiate today at gunpoint, or pay the highest possible prices for commodities."
In this context, he admitted that the Polish zloty was at the weakest level in history against the US dollar, at more than PLN 5 per one US dollar. "This is why the Baltic Pipe is not filled up yet," Morawiecki added.
Energy prices in Poland have increased rapidly owing to a combination of factors, including the war in Ukraine and an embargo on Russian oil and gas.
