There is full consensus among European Union (EU) leaders on financial support for investment in protecting the EU’s eastern border and Poland’s ‘Shield East’ initiative, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said. He also announced that “from the moment the new European Commission is constituted, Poland will certainly have one of the decisive votes on defence and close neighbourhood issues”.
“I have spoken to most European prime ministers and presidents precisely on this issue and everyone without exception confirmed, including the candidate for the head of the Commission, the treatment of investment in the protection of the EU’s eastern border as a common task, […] including European funding for at least some tasks on this border. Of course, we will only discuss the details with the new Commission. But today I can already assure you – Europe will pay for our security, because our border security is European security,” Tusk said during the press conference.
“There is full agreement to support this initiative of the Greek Prime Minister and myself, so that together Europe builds the ‘Iron Dome’ in the Polish sky. Our initiative on the eastern border – Shield East – will most likely be joined in the coming days by other countries – including the Baltic States, and this too will be a project supported by the European Union,” the Prime Minister said.
He stressed that solidarity around European security issues and the EU’s eastern border was “unequivocal”.
“From the moment the new European Commission is constituted, Poland will certainly have one of the decisive voices in defence and close neighbourhood issues. I will not yet say today what the distribution of these portfolios in the European Commission will look like, but I have received assurances from all sides that Poland will have one of the decisive votes when it comes to the issues that are so important for us, which are defence, enlargement and neighbourhood, and therefore also the security of our borders,” Tusk announced.
Donald Tusk announced in May the launch of a major project to build a secure border, including a system of fortifications, as well as such landforms, environmental decisions that will make the border impassable to a potential enemy. He also reported that 10 billion zloty has been mobilised for this purpose. The undertaking is codenamed ‘Shield East’. Minister of National Defence Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz announced that the National Defence and Deterrence Plan ‘Tarcza Wschód’ will be adopted in the form of a resolution of the Council of Ministers for the years 2024-2028 with a budget of at least PLN 10 billion, and that Polish companies and Polish entrepreneurs will be involved in the execution of the project.
Source: ISBnews
