The Budapest get-together, which was also attended by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the Czech Republic's Andrej Babiš, and Slovakia's Eduard Heger, focused on the geopolitical situation in Europe, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
At a joint news conference afterwards, Morawiecki said that “today we are confronted with several crises at the same time involving the pandemic, energy, migration, and security.”
“We can only deal with them together while maintaining the principle of non-discrimination and respect for one another,” he added.
Morawiecki told reporters that the talks in Budapest had also touched on the rule of law and judicial systems.
“What is allowed in one EU country, such as France or Germany, must be allowed in all other EU countries,” he said. "Otherwise there is discrimination."
'We must be able to defend our external borders'
Morawiecki also told the news conference that Poland was "defending the eastern border of the EU and NATO" amid a migration crisis on its frontier with Belarus.
He added: “I thank President Macron and the prime ministers of the V4 countries for their words of appreciation. We must be able to defend our external borders. We must prevent people from being smuggled and used as human shields.”
Referring to Russia’s recent military build-up near Ukraine, Morawiecki said that “Ukraine is a big and very important country for peace and security in this part of Europe, perhaps in the whole of Europe.”
Meanwhile, France’s Macron said that the EU’s external borders must be strengthened, the migrant influx limited, while the bloc's members should work together to solve problems such as Poland’s rule of law dispute with Brussels, the PAP news agency reported.
The EU's top court in October ordered Poland to pay a daily fine of EUR 1 million for not suspending a contested disciplinary chamber for judges.
The Visegrad Group, or V4, is a regional cooperation platform that brings together Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP