2019-05-01 15:23 update: 2019-05-09, 12:57
Photo: PAP/Leszek Szymański
At the 'Together for Europe' EU expansion 15th-anniversay summit in Warsaw, gratitude was expressed for 'Solidarity' - a symbol of independence that led to the fall of communism and the start of great changes, PM Mateusz Morawiecki stated on Wednesday.
"Our debate was extremely fruitful, very frank, rich in content and very interesting," the prime minister told a press conference after the high-level summit.
Morawiecki highlighted that during the debate, gratitude was expressed for the Solidarity trade union as, "our great movement, a symbol of independence, that led to the fall of communism and to the start of great changes in 1989."
"Those changes gave new life to this part of Europe, but at the same time - which was echoed very strongly in the debate - we showed that it is not possible to distract from the different historical context between Western Europe and Central Europe," the Polish head of government continued.
The PM noted that between the countries of Western and Central Europe there are different challenges and different levels of development. "It is not our own fault that that happened," the PM declared. "We were on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain - we were left to fend for ourselves, during the period of communism, after the terrible Second World War," he pointed out. "We are grateful for what we get from the EU, but - we underscore - we give at least as much to the EU," Morawiecki asserted.
In addition to the Polish prime minister, the summit was attended by the prime ministers of Bulgaria - Boyko Borisov, Croatia - Andrej Plenkovic, the Czech Republic - Andrej Babis, Estonia - Juri Ratas, Lithuania - Saulius Skvernelis, Malta - Joseph Muscat, Romania - Viorica Dancila and Hungary - Viktor Orban, among other high-level guests. (PAP)
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