Mateusz Morawiecki made the statement at a media briefing on Friday, the second day of a two-day summit of EU leaders in Brussels, Belgium, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
New EU measures to counter energy crisis
On Thursday, after 10 hours of talks, EU heads of state and government agreed on several measures to protect citizens and businesses from rising energy costs driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to officials.
The measures include "a temporary dynamic price corridor on natural gas transactions,” a "temporary EU framework to cap the price of gas in electricity generation,” a voluntary plan for member countries to jointly purchase gas, and EUR 40 billion in assistance to households and small and medium-sized companies in member states to help them through the energy crisis, reporters were told.
After reaching this general agreement, called “European Council Conclusions on Energy and Economy,” EU leaders called on member countries and the bloc’s executive, the European Commission, to hammer out the details of the policies, officials said.
‘Great success for Poland’: PM
Commenting on the deal he had struck together with other EU leaders on Thursday, the Polish prime minister said: “Yesterday we ended the discussion with conclusions that were good for Poland, introducing an energy price cap through a price corridor."
He added: "We also talked about the voluntary nature of the purchasing mechanism, and our proposal was taken into account.”
Morawiecki also told reporters: “All issues related to energy policy, prices, the weakening of the negative impact on domestic markets, the economy and unemployment were included in the conclusions. This is a great success for Poland. We have been building a coalition with the other member states.”
Poland calls for new sanctions on Russia, Belarus over Ukraine
On Friday, EU leaders were set to focus on the latest developments in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, including its consequences in Ukraine and elsewhere and the bloc’s continued support for Ukraine, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
Poland’s Morawiecki told reporters: “Russia is not seeking peace but wants to terrorise Ukraine and Europe. I hope our discussions today will be directed toward a firm condemnation of Russia and the implementation of the next package of sanctions against Russia and Belarus.”
Friday is day 240 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, tvp.info