What about European solidarity? V4 leaders and President Macron answer questions from wPolityce.pl and "Sieci"!

„Can something be done in the short term and on a practical level, to increase European solidarity in the face of security challenges?”

— this is the question that the representative of the editorial team of the portal wPolityce.pl and the weekly „Sieci” asked the Prime Ministers of the Visegrad Group countries and the French President at the conference after the V4 and France summit in Budapest. Michał Karnowski specified that the questions included illegal migration used to destabilise other countries, the possibility of war in the East, energy blackmail and the deliberate spread of false information. He stressed that the nations of Central and Eastern Europe sense the gravity of the threat, but often have the impression that the European establishment is dealing with matters of third and fifth priority.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki: „We stopped the flow of new migrants through diplomatic action”

I think we are all aware of the unique situation that has been created on NATO’s eastern flank. (…) Using people as human shields had not happened very often in the past, and here it has happened. We stopped the flow of new migrants by diplomatic action and now they are on their way back. In this case, our decisive retort meant that, for the time being, Lukashenko did not win this dispute, this pressure, this blackmail. However, various scenarios are certainly being written in the Kremlin and today we see the noose tightening around Ukraine

— stated Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

When discussing the situation on the eastern flank, one cannot ignore the element of energy blackmail, as well as strictly military pressure. (…) Here, within the framework of all our NATO member states, we care about these elements of security and talk about them more and more often, so I cannot say that this aspect is neglected.

— he stressed.

The specificity of borders and the realism of those borders. This is what we are doing on the eastern flank; this border is becoming tighter and tighter. (…) This is something the European Commission could rather help than hinder.

— said the Prime Minister.

The second thing is that we are also talking about sanctions. We know very well that Belarus is afraid of economic sanctions. (…) We have these tools at our disposal. (…) If the escalation continues, we will not hesitate to present the European Commission and our partners with new solutions, which will aim at a more decisive response against such practices

— he stressed.

President Macron: „Europe and the times have changed”

When you are a Polish journalist and you speak to the French president, there is practically an ocean between us from an attitude point of view. You might more often have this feeling that Europeans have abandoned you, and I think the only message is that Europe and the times have changed

— said in turn French President Emmanuel Macron.

Today France is a country that regards all countries with the same level of solidarity. (…) It sees Poland’s future together with the French citizens

• he noted.

Prime Minister Orban: „The EU should show solidarity with us”.

We had a strong lesson of solidarity in 2015. (…) We did not get a single word of praise, we were attacked in a brutal way while we were defending Europe’s borders from migration; we were practically shot at from Brussels and other EU capitals, but Hungary was never offended, but did its job knowing that it was defending Hungary and Europe

— said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Now that the times have changed, it is probably time for some reckoning. (…) The EU should show solidarity with us. So far we’ve shown solidarity with the EU, but they haven’t done it so far. We should account for ourselves fairly, and the costs that fell on one country should be accounted for, and at least half of what it cost Hungarian citizens should be returned

— he stated.

Prime Minister Heger: „We were very specific about protecting the external borders”

We spoke very concretely about the protection of external borders, and I must say that we did not merely end up with words, but with actions. (…) I am glad that quite a few countries reacted and contacted Prime Minister Morawiecki in response to the Belarusian crisis

• said Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger.

We must act together to send such signals so that it is clear that escalation is not the solution. We are ready to pay for peace

• he pointed out.

Prime Minister Babisz: „We are solidarity in practice:”

We are indeed solidarity in practice. This means that from the point of view of defending the Schengen borders, I am very happy that for the French presidency this is a priority

— stressed Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš.

Tłum.K.J.