Mateusz Morawiecki made the statement at the close of a two-day EU summit in Brussels, Belgium, on Friday, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
Ukraine to receive EUR 18 bn from EU in 2023
The Polish prime minister told reporters: “In line with Poland's proposal, the European Council called for a strengthening of support to Ukraine and for the implementation of the package adopted in May and June, which provides for EUR 9 billion in financial aid.”
Morawiecki added that the European Commission, the EU’s executive, "has pledged it will soon release the final, much-needed EUR 3 billion for Ukraine.”
In their official conclusions from the Brussels get-together, EU leaders, collectively known as the European Council, wrote: “The European Council calls for the timely provision of the remaining EUR 3 billion in macrofinancial assistance for Ukraine.”
They added that the Council "invites the Commission to present, and the Council to work on, a more structural solution for providing assistance to Ukraine.”
Morawiecki disclosed that EU leaders "gave initial approval" to the European Commission’s plan to provide a total of EUR 18 billion to Ukraine next year, or EUR 1.5 billion a month.
He said he had suggested such a move to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen a few weeks ago, the IAR news agency reported.
“I am grateful to the European Commission for accepting our proposal to give this hope to Ukraine, this longer-term plan that shows we won’t leave them alone,” Morawiecki said.
EU leaders vow to fight Russian disinformation
The Polish prime minister also said that "at Poland’s request, EU leaders stated that Russia, due to its war of aggression against Ukraine, bears the sole responsibility for the current energy and economic crises.”
The European Council said it was determined to counter Russian "disinformation aimed at negating our collective efforts to defend the sovereignty of Ukraine and rules-based international order,” Morawiecki told the media.
Poland calls for new sanctions, seizure of Russian assets
He said Poland was urging the European Commission "to make Russia suffer real consequences of its actions,” by confiscating the frozen assets of Kremlin-linked companies and individuals, worth some USD 350-400 billion.
“These funds could be used to fund mechanisms to stabilise energy prices in the EU,” Morawiecki said, adding that his government had also called for a fresh round of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
Friday was day 240 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, tvpparlament.pl
