Poland’s new Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has declared that his country’s interests have been secured in the European Union’s ongoing exit negotiations with Britain.
He was speaking after EU leaders meeting in Brussels on December 15 agreed to move Brexit talks on to the next stage.
As reported by Radio Poland, Morawiecki told journalists that arrangements made by EU leaders in the Belgian capital regarding Brexit were in Poland’s favour. He added that Poland’s main concern was to ensure continued rights for Polish citizens in the UK, particularly in terms of social policy.
Morawiecki also said that he had spoken to British Prime Minister Theresa May on the sidelines of the summit on December 14.
May recently said that the UK was “building a strategic partnership with Poland… that will outlast our exit” from the European Union.
She also told Poland’s PAP news agency that ensuring EU citizens’ rights in the UK and UK citizens’ rights in the EU was her “first priority”.
“The one million Polish citizens and 30,000 Polish businesses who have made a home in the UK have made a huge economic, social and cultural contribution to the fabric of our country… No EU citizen legally living in the UK needs to worry,” she said.
Giving an impromptu news conference on board a plane bound for Warsaw, Morawiecki said another takeaway from the Brussels summit was that Poland’s voice on migration issues was beginning to be heard more clearly.
The two-day EU summit in Brussels marked Morawiecki’s first foreign trip as prime minister.
